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THE  AFRICANDERS. 


The  Africanders 

A   CENTURY   OF 

DUTCH-ENGLISH   FEUD 

IN   SOUTH  AFRICA 


LE  ROY  HpOKER, 

AUTHOR  OF 

"Enoch,  THE  Philistine,"  "Baldoon,' 

ETC. 


Chicago  and  New  York: 

RAND, 

McNALLY   &   CO  ,  PUBLISHERS. 

MDCCCC. 

Copyright,  1900,  by  Rand,  McNally  &  Co. 


Contents. 

Chapter.  Page. 

I  —  The  Dutch  at  the  Cape  (1652-1795),       -        n 
II  —  First  Contact  of  Africander  and  Briton 

IN  Diplomacy  (1795),     -        -        -        -  26 

III  —  First  Contact  of  Africander  and  Briton 

IN  War  (1795), -        46 

IV  — The    Africanders'    First  Trek    to    the 

North  (1806-1838),        .        -        -        -  68 

V  —  Second     Contact     of    Africander     and 

Briton — In  Natal,        .        -        .        -        87 
VI  —  Second     Contact    of    Africander    and 

Briton  —  North  of  the  Orange  River,         98 
VII  — The  Africanders'  Second  Trek  to  the 

North, 114 

VIII  —  The  Independent  Africander  and 

Slavery,  -        -        -        -        -        -        -      123 

IX  — Third     Contact     of    Africander     and 

Briton  —  In  the   Orange  Free  State,       135 
X  —  Third     Contact     of    Africander     and 

Briton  —  In  the  Transvaal,      -        -  14S 
XI — The   Africanders'   First  War  of  Inde- 
pendence,           165 

XII  —  The  Africander   Republics  and   British 

Policy, 178 

XIII  —  Causes  of  the  Africanders'  Second  War 

of  Independence, 188 

XIV  —  Causes  of  the  Africanders'  Second  War 

of  Independence  —  Continued,  -        -  207 
XV  —  Causes  of  the  Africanders'  Second  War 

of  Independence — Continued,       -        -  221 
XVI  —  Causes  of  the  Africanders'  Second  War 

of  Independence  —  Concluded,  -        -  241 

XVII  —  The  Country  of  the  Africanders,  -  261 


Illustrations. 


Cape  Town,  Cape  of  Good  Hope,     .  .     Frontispiece 

President  Kruger,      ....  Facing  page  48 

Lighthouse,  Durban,       .         .         .  .      "  "72 

President  Steyn,  Orange  Free  State,          "  "      88 

The  Vaal  River,     ..-.."  "96 

Doctor  Jameson,          .         .         .         .          "  "112 

Majuba  Hill,  .         .         .         .         .  .      "  "    120 

General Joubert,          .         .         .         _          "  "    136 

Pietermaritzburg,  .         .         _         _  .      "  "152 

Cecil  J.  Rhodes,            ....          "  "    168 

Government  Building,  Pretoria,    .  .      "  "    176 

Joseph  Chamberlain,    .         .         .         .          "  "    192 

Bloemfontein,         .        -        .        .  .      "  "    208 

General  Cronje,           .         .         .         .          "  "    224 

Pritchard  Street,  Johannesburg,  .  .      "  "    240 

Cattle  ON  the  Vaal  River,           .         .          "  "    264 


FOREWORD. 


This  is  the  history,  briefly  told,  of  the  great 
Dutch-EngHsh  feud  in  South  Africa,  up  to  the 
beginning  of  the  Africanders'  second  war  of  in- 
dependence with  Great  Britain,  which  opened  on 
the  nth  of  October,  1899. 

In  writing  these  pages  I  have  not  felt  con- 
scious of  being  in  controversy  with  any  one.  If 
I  had  been  susceptible  to  influences  that  create 
prejudice,  nearly  three  centuries  of  American 
descent  from  purely  Anglo-Saxon  progenitors 
with  no  admixture  of  any  other  blood  would  have 
predisposed  me  to  magnify  everything  in  this 
long  feud  that  exemplified  the  prowess  and  the 
honor  of  that  race,  and  to  minify  in  the  telling 
whatever  faults  it  had  committed.  It  will  be 
for  such  readers  of  my  work  as  are  conversant 
with  the  ultimate  authorities  on  the  subject 
treated  of  to  judge  how  far  I  have  succeeded  or 
failed  in  presenting  a  "plain,  unvarnished"  tale. 


10  FOREWORD 

I  acknowledge,  with  much  gratitude,  indebt- 
edness for  data  to  the  following  distinguished 
writers : 

Canon  W.  J.  Little,  M.  A.,  author  of  "South 
Africa";  George  McCall  Theal,  M.  A.,  Official 
Historiographer  and  sometime  Keeper  of  the  Ar- 
chives at  Cape  Town ;  Professor  James  Bryce, 
author  of  "Impressions  of  South  Africa,"  "The 
American  Commonwealth,"  etc. ;  F.  Reginald 
Statham,  author  of  "South  Africa  as  It  Is"  ;  Olive 
Schreiner,  author  of  "The  South  African  Ques- 
tion"; the  British  Blue  Books  and  other 
sources  of  reliable  information. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


THE  AFRICANDERS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  DUTCH  AT  THE  CAPE. 
(1652-I795.) 

This  is  the  story,  briefly  told,  of  the  Dutch 
Boers  in  South  Africa. 

The  Portuguese  were  the  first  Europeans  to 
visit  the  shores  of  South  and  Southeastern 
Africa,  but  they  made  no  attempt  to  settle  the 
country  south  of  Delagoa  Bay.  They  were 
traders.  The  Hottentots  had  little  to  sell  that 
they  cared  to  purchase.  The  route  for  Portu- 
guese commerce  with  the  East  was  west  of  Mada- 
gascar, consequently  they  found  it  unnecessary  to 
put  into  Table  Bay ;  the  voyage  from  St,  Helena 
to  Mozambique  could  be  made  comfortably  with- 
out seeking  a  port  of  supply. 

But  when  the  Dutch,  wrested  the  eastern  trade 


12  THE    AFRICANDERS 

from  the  Portuguese,  the  southeastern  portion  of 
Africa  assumed  an  importance  to  them  that  it 
had  never  before  possessed  in  the  esteem  of  any 
other  nation.  Their  sea  route  to  the  East  was 
south  of  Madagascar,  and  it  was  all  but  impera- 
tive that  they  should  have  a  port  of  supply  at  the 
turning  point  of  the  long  voyage  between  Hol- 
land and  Batavia.  It  soon  became  their  practice 
to  call  at  Table  Bay  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
news,  taking  in  fresh  water,  catching  fish,  and 
bartering  with  the  natives  for  cattle — in  which 
they  were  seldom  successful. 

In  1650  the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  act- 
ing upon  the  reports  and  suggestions  of  influ- 
ential men  who  had  visited  Table  Bay  and  re- 
sided in  Table  Valley  several  months,  determined 
to  establish  at  Table  Bay  such  a  victualing  sta- 
tion as  had  been  recommended.  In  accordance 
therewith  the  ships  Reiger  and  Dromedaris  and 
the  yacht  Goede  Hoop — all  then  lying  in  the 
harbor  of  Amsterdam — were  put  in  commission 
to  carry  the  party  of  occupation  to  Table  Bay, 
under  the  general  command  of  Jan  Van  Riebeek. 

On  Sunday,  24th  of  December,  1651,  the  ex- 
pedition sailed,  accompanied  by  a  large  fleet  of 
merchant  vessels.  On  the  morning  of  Sunday, 
the  7th  of  April,   1652,  after  a  voyage  of  one 


DUTCH    AT   THE    CAPE  I3 

hundred  and  four  days,  the  site  of  their  future 
home  greeted  the  eyes  of  the  sea-worn  emigrants, 
— Table  Mountain,  3,816  feet  high,  being  the 
central  and  impressive  feature  of  the  landscape. 
In  due  time  preparations  were  made  to  land  and 
begin  the  necessary  operations  in  establishing 
themselves  in  the  new  and  entirely  uncivilized 
•  country. 

The  organization  of  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  was  on  a  thoroughly  military  system. 
It  graduated  downward  from  the  home  Assembly 
of  Seventeen — who  were  supreme — to  a  govern- 
or-general of  India  and  his  council  resident  in 
Batavia,  and,  ranking  next  below  him  in  their 
order,  to  a  vast  number  of  admirals,  governors 
and  commanders — each  having  his  own  council, 
and  acting  under  the  strict  rule  that  whenever 
these  came  in  contact  the  lower  in  rank  must 
give  place  and  render  obedience  to  the  higher. 
It  is  important  to  bear  this  in  mind,  as  it  gives  a 
clear  insight  into  the  mode  of  government  under 
which  the  occupation  took  place,  and  which  pre- 
vailed with  little  variation  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years.  The  ranking  officer  of  the  expedition 
was  Jan  Van  Riebeek,  and  next  to  him  in  au- 
thority were  the  three  commanders  as  his  coun- 
cil in  founding  the  settlement. 


14  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Van  Riebeek  and  the  three  skippers,  having 
inspected  Table  Valley,  selected  a  site  for  the 
fort  a  little  in  rear  of  the  ground  on  which  the 
general  postoffice  of  Cape  Town  now  stands.  On 
that  spot  a  great  stronghold  was  built  in  the 
form  of  a  square  strengthened  by  bastions  at  its 
angles.  Each  face  of  the  fort  measured  252  Rhyn- 
land  feet — about  260  feet  English  measure.  The 
walls  were  built  of  earth,  twelve  feet  high,  twenty 
feet  in  thickness  at  the  base,  tapering  to  sixteen 
feet  at  the  top,  and  were  surmounted  by  a  para- 
pet. Surrounding  the  whole  structure  was  a 
moat,  into  which  the  water  of  Fresh  River  could 
be  turned.  Within  the  walls  were  dwellings,  bar- 
racks, storehouses  and  other  conveniences  that 
might  be  required  in  a  state  of  siege.  Around 
the  fort  were  clustered  a  walled  kraal  for  cattle, 
a  separate  inclosure  for  works*hops,  and  the  tents 
in  which  the  settlers  began  their  life  in  Africa. 

On  the  28th  of  January,  1653,  the  last  of  the 
ships,  the  Dromedaris,  sailed  away  and  left  the 
colonists  to  their  own  resources. 

The  history  in  detail  of  this  first  European 
settlement  in  South  Africa  is  of  surpassing  inter- 
est ;  but,  here,  it  must  be  sketched  in  the  briefest 
outline  possible,  up  to  the  first  contact  of  Boer 
with  Briton. 


DUTCH    AT   THE    CAPE  1 5 

For  the  first  twenty-five  years  the  aim  of  the 
colonists  was  to  keep  within  easy  reach  of  the 
fort  at  the  Cape.  Up  to  1680  the  most  distant 
agricultural  settlement  was  at  Stellenbosch,  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  the  Cape.  Not  till  the  end 
of  the  century  did  they  push  pioneering  enter- 
prises beyond  the  first  range  of  mountains. 

There  was  a  steady  though  not  very  rapid  in- 
crease of  population.  As  early  as  1658  the  dis- 
astrous step  was  taken  of  introducing  slave  labor, 
performed  at  first  by  West  African  negroes — a 
step  which  encouraged  in  the  whites  an  indispo- 
sition to  work,  and  doomed  that  part  of  Africa  to 
be  dependent  on  the  toil  of  slaves.  To  their 
African  slaves  the  Dutch  East  India  Company 
added  numbers  of  Malay  convicts  from  Java  and 
other  parts  of  its  East  Indian  territories.  These 
Malays  took  wives  from  the  female  convicts  of 
their  own  race,  and  to  some  extent  intermarried 
with  the  native  African  slave-women.  From  such 
marriages  there  arose  a  mongrel,  dark  people  of 
the  servile  order,  whicli  became  a  considerable 
element  in  the  population  of  Cape  Town  and  its 
neighboring  regions. 

In  1689  some  three  hundred  French  Hugue- 
nots came  from  Holland  in  a  body  and  joined  the 
colonists  at  the  Cape.     These  were  a  valuable 


l6  THE    AFRICANDERS 

acquisition  as  an  offset  to  the  rapidly  increasing 
servile  element.  They  were  mostly  persons  of 
refinement,  and  brought  with  them  habits  of  in- 
dustry, strong  attachment  to  the  Protestant  faith, 
and  a  supreme  love  of  liberty.  Many  of  the  more 
respectable  colonial  families  are  descended  from 
that  stock. 

The  somewhat  intolerant  government  of  the 
Company  hastened  the  blending  of  the  various 
classes  of  the  population  in  one.  The  Huguenots 
loved  their  language  and  their  peculiar  faith, 
and  greatly  desired  to  found  a  separate  religious 
community.  But  the  Company  forbade  the  use 
of  French  in  official  documents  and  in  religious 
services.  As  a  result  of  this  narrow  but  far-see- 
ing policy,  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  Huguenots  had  amalgamated  with  their 
Dutch  fellow-colonists  in  language,  religion  and 
politics.  It  was  not  until  1780  that  the  Com- 
pany's government  permitted  the  opening  of  a 
Lutheran  church,  although  many  Germans  of 
that  persuasion  had  emigrated' to  the  Cape. 

The  distinctive  Africander  type  of  character 
began  to  appear  at  the  time  when  the  settlers  be- 
gan to  move  from  the  coast  into  the  interior  of 
the  country.  There  was  everything  to  favor  the 
rapid  development  of  a  new  type  of  humanity. 


DUTCH    AT   THE    CAPE  I7 

For  the  most  part  the  Dutch  and  the  Germans 
belonged  to  the  humbler  classes ;  the  situation 
was  isolated ;  the  home  ties  were  few ;  the  voyage 
to  Europe  was  so  long  that  communication  was 
difficult  and  expensive ;  and  so  they  maintained 
little  connection  with — and  soon  lost  all  feeling 
for — the  fatherlands.  As  for  the  Huguenots,  they 
had  no  home  country  to  look  to.  France  had 
banished  them,  and  they  were  not  of  Holland — 
neither  in  blood  nor  in  speech.  Thus  it  came  to 
pass  that  the  whites  of  South  Africa  who  went 
into  the  interior  as  pioneers  went  consenting  to 
the  feeling  that  every  bond  between  Europe  and 
themselves  was  severed — that  they  were  a  new 
people  whose  true  home  and  destiny,  to  the  latest 
generations,  were  to  be  in  Africa. 

Many  of  them  became  stockmen,  roaming 
with  their  flocks  and  herds  over  vast  tracts  of 
grazing  lands,  for  which  they  paid  a  nominal  rent 
to  the  Company.  Some  of  them  became  mighty 
hunters  of  big  game — like  Nimrod ;  and  even 
those  who  herded  cattle  and  sheep  were  forced  to 
protect  themselves  and  their  live  stock  against 
lions  and  leopards  and  the  savage  Bushmen  who 
waged  a  constant  warfare  in  which  quarter  was 
neither  g^iven  nor  expected.  In  such  circum- 
stances it  is  not  wonderful  that  the  people  who 

2 


l8  THE    AFRICANDERS 

had  in  their  veins  the  blended  blood  of  Holland 
and  Navarre  developed  to  an  almost  unparalleled 
degree  courage,  self-reliance  and  love  of  inde- 
pendence, coupled  with  a  passion  for  solitude  and 
isolation. 

As  inevitable  results  of  the  life  they  led — so 
isolated  and  wild — the  children  grew  up  un- 
taught ;  the  women,  being  served  by  slaves,  lost 
both  the  Dutch  and  French  habits  of  thrift  and 
cleanliness;  and  the  men  became  indifferent  to 
the  elegancies  of  life,  and  grew  more  and  more 
stern  and  narrow-minded  on  all  questions  of  pub- 
lic policy  and  religion.  But  there  was  no  declen- 
sion of  religious  fervor.  In  all  their  wanderings 
the  Bible  went  with  them  as  an  oracle  to  be  con- 
sulted on  all  subjects,  and  the  altar  of  family 
worship  never  lacked  its  morning  and  evening 
sacrifice.  And  they  retained  a  passionate  love  of 
personal  freedom  which  no  effort  of  the  Com- 
pany's government  could  bring  under  perfect 
discipline. 

Magistrates  and  assessors  were  appointed  in 
some  of  the  distant  stations,  but  they  failed  to 
control  the  wandering  stockmen,  who  were 
called  Trek  Boers  because  they  "trekked"  from 
place  to  place.  Being  good  marksmen  and 
inured  to  conflict  with  wild  beasts  and  wilder 


DUTCH    AT    THE    CAPE  I9 

men,  they  formed  among  themselves  companies 
of  fighting  men  whose  duty  it  was  to  disperse  or 
destroy  the  savage  Bushmen.  These  independ- 
ent military  organizations  the  government  recog- 
nized and  approved  by  appointing  over  them  a 
field  commander  for  each  district  and  a  subordi- 
nate called  a  field  cornet  for  each  subdivision  of  a 
district.  These  officers  and  their  respective  com- 
mands became  permanent  features  of  the  system 
of  local  government,  and  the  war  bands — called 
commandos — have  always  been  recognized  in  the 
records  of  military  operations  by  the  Boers. 

The  administration,  through  a  governor  and 
council  appointed  by  the  Dutch  East  India  Com- 
pany in  Holland,  was  never  popular  with  the 
colonists.  The  governor  was  in  no  sense  re- 
sponsible to  the  people  he  governed.  This  was 
one  of  the  causes  which  prompted  the  Boers  to 
go  out  into  the  wilderness,  where  distance  from 
the  center  of  authority  secured  to  them  greater 
freedom. 

In  1779  th^  disaffected  colonists  sent  com- 
missioners to  Holland  to  demand  of  the  States- 
General  redress  of  the  grievances  suffered  under 
the  rule  of  the  Dutcli  East  India  Company  and 
a  share  in  the  government  of  the  colony.  This 
action  was  due,  in  part,  to  actual  wrongs  inflicted 


20  THE    AFRICANDERS 

on  a  liberty-loving  people,  and,  in  part,  to  the 
spirit  of  independence  which  characterized  the 
temper  of  the  age  and  had  led  the  British  colo- 
nists in  North  America  to  throw  off  the  control 
of  their  mother  country. 

After  prolonged  negotiations  the  States-Gen- 
eral sent  out  two  commissioners  to  investigate 
the  state  of  affairs  in  the  Cape  colony  and  to 
recommend  measures  of  reform.  The  degree  of 
relief  proposed  was  considered  inadequate — es- 
pecially by  those  who  dwelt  in  the  more  distant 
settlements.  Therefore,  in  1795,  the  people  of 
the  interior  rose  up  in  revolt  against  the  Com- 
pany's government — professing,  however,  un- 
abated loyalty  to  the  mother  country.  The 
magistrates  appointed  by  the  company  were  de- 
posed, and  little  republics  were  set  up,  each  with 
a  representative  assembly.  It  would  have  been 
an  easy  matter  for  the  government  at  the  Cape 
to  have  suppressed  these  uprisings  by  cutting  off 
their  food  supplies.  But  just  then  other  events 
claimed  the  attention  of  both  the  governor  and 
the  governed — events  which  drew  South  Africa 
into  the  tumultuous  tide  of  European  politics 
and  led  to  the  immediate  contact  of  Boer  and 
Briton,  and  initiated  a  struggle  between  the  two 


DUTCH    AT   THE    CAPE  21 

which  has  been  renewed  at  intervals,  with  vary- 
ing fortunes,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years. 

Before  going  forward  to  the  event  of  1795 — 
the  first  contact  of  Boer  and  Briton — it  will  be 
well  to  note  some  of  the  more  important  fea- 
tures of  the  condition  in  which  that  contact 
found  the  Boer. 

The  total  Boer  population  of  South  Africa  in 
1795  was  about  seventeen  thousand,  with  a  rapid 
rate  of  increase.  In  the  mixed  blood  of  the 
people  the  proportions  of  national  elements  were : 
Dutch,  a  little  less  than  two-thirds ;  French,  one- 
sixth  ;  the  remainder  was  principally  German, 
with  a  sprinkling  of  other  nationalities. 

The  popular  language  differed  largely  from 
that  of  Holland  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  amalgamation  with  a  large  body 
of  foreigners,  the  scant  instruction  in  book 
learning,  and  above  all  the  necessity  of  speaking 
to  the  slaves  and  Hottentots  in  the  simplest 
manner  possible  had  all  tended  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  grammatical  forms.  The  language  in 
common  use  by  the  Boer  had  become  a  mere 
dialect,  having  a  very  limited  vocabulary.  But 
the  Dutch  Bible — a  book  that  every  one  read — 
greatly  increased  the  number  of  words  with 
which  he  was  familiar.    With  this  addition,  how- 


22  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ever,  most  of  the  uneducated  South  African 
colonists  were  unable  to  understand  fully  the 
contents  of  a  newspaper  of  the  time  printed  in 
Holland,  or  a  book  treating  of  a  subject  un- 
familiar to  them.  Naturally  this  dialect  of  the 
Dutch  was  greatly  beloved  by  the  people  using 
it — it  was  the  language  of  mother,  of  lover,  of 
friend  to  friend  in  parting  to  meet  no  more. 

In  no  other  country  were  women  more  com- 
pletely on  an  equality  with  men  than  in  South 
Africa.  Property  belonging  to  a  woman  while 
she  was  single,  or  acquired  by  her  after  mar- 
riage, was  secured  to  her  in  perpetuity  so  that 
her  husband  could  neither  squander  it  nor  dis- 
pose of  it  in  any  way  without  her  consent. 
Neither  was  it  subject  to  seizure  for  debts  con- 
tracted by  him,  but  was  as  absolutely  hers  as  if 
no  marriage  existed. 

The  rights  of  children  to  be  provided  for 
were  sacredly  guarded.  An  individual  having 
five  or  more  children  could  only  dispose  by  will 
of  half  the  estate ;  the  remainder  belonged  to 
the  children,  and  upon  the  death  of  the  parent 
it  was  equally  divided  among  them ;  if  any  were 
minors  their  share  was  taken  in  trust  for  them 
by  guardians  provided  by  law.     If  there  were 


DUTCH    AT   THE    CAPE  23 

not  more  than  four  children  the  parent  could 
dispose  by  will  of  two-thirds  of  the  estate. 

The  industrial  pursuits  of  the  people  outside 
of  Cape  Town  were  almost  entirely  agricultural 
and  pastoral.  There  were  no  mining  interests. 
There  was  abundance  of  fish,  but  the  taking  of 
them  was  discouraged  by  government  prohibi- 
tions of  fishing  in  any  waters  but  Table  Bay  in 
summer  and  False  Bay  in  winter.  This  measure 
was  taken  to  save  Ijie  Company  the  expense  of 
providing  military  protection  for  fishermen  at  a 
distance  from  the  fort.  In  1718  it  was  permitted 
to  fish  in  Saldanha  Bay,  also,  but  as  one-fifth  of 
the  product  was  exacted  as  a  tax  the  license  was 
not  accepted. 

The  making  of  wagons  and  carts  of  the  pe- 
culiar kind  needed  in  Africa  at  that  time  was 
carried  to  great  perfection.  This,  however,  was 
the  only  important  manufacturing  industry  in 
the  country.  For  the  most  part  families  sup- 
plied  themselves  with  homemade  articles  of  use, 
such  as  soap,  candles,  furniture,  leather,  cloth, 
harness  and  farming  implements.  Everything 
thus  produced  was  crude  and  clumsy,  but  the 
articles  were  durable  and  served  the  purpose 
fairly  well. 

All  in  all,  they  were  a  worthy  and  a  very 


24  THE   AFRICANDERS 

peculiar  people — these  Boers.  They  differed 
largely  from  all  others  in  habits,  language  and 
ideals;  but  they  were  loyal  to  their  ideals,  and 
acted  with  rare  good  sense  and  manly  energy  in 
carrying  them  into  effect.  They  were  so  far  free 
from  the  prevailing  spirit  of  religious  bigotry 
that  in  1795,  besides  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church — in  a  sense  the  national  church — the 
Lutheran  and  the  Moravian  denominations  were 
tolerated. 

The  territory  in  South  Africa  that  had  been 
explored,  up  to  1795,  included  the  Cape  colony, 
the  western  coast  as  far  north  as  Waliish  Bay, 
the  eastern  coast  to  the  Zambesi  River  and  the 
Zambesi  Valley  to  a  point  above  Tete,  and  a  few 
localities  in  the  region  now  known  as  Rhodesia. 
Possibly  some  roving  elephant  hunters  had 
crossed  the  Orange  River,  but,  if  so,  they  were 
silent  as  to  any  discoveries  made. 

The  Bushmen  had  retired  from  the  popu- 
lous parts  of  the  Colony,  and  were  numerous 
only  along  the  mountain  range  in  the  interior. 
The  Hottentots  had  dwindled  away  to  a  few 
thousand.  The  thinning  out  of  these  native 
races  was  due  not  so  much  to  mortal  conflict 
with  the  whites  as  to  the  ravages  of  smallpox 
and  strong  drink.     Like  all  savage  people  they 


DUTCH    AT   THE    CAPE  25 

seemed  to  melt  away  before  these  scourges  as 
stubble  before  flames. 

And  here  we  close  this  chapter  of  the  history 
of  the  Boers.  We  leave  them,  for  the  moment, 
divided  as  to  the  government  of  the  Dutch  East 
India  Company,  but  a  homogeneous  people 
seventeen  thousand  strong,  and  having  de- 
veloped out  of  the  elements  mixed  in  their  blood 
and  the  peculiar  environment  and  experiences  in 
which  they  lived  a  new  race  of  civilized  men  to 
be  known  in  the  history  of  commerce,  diplomacy 
and  war  as  Africanders. 


26  THE    AFRICANDEKS 


CHAPTER  11. 

FIRST    CONTACT    OF    AFRICANDER   AND   BRITON    IN 
DIPLOMACY. 

(I795-) 

Colonel  Robert  Jacob  Gordon  was  in  chief 
command  of  all  the  regular  military  forces  main- 
tained in  the  Cape  colony.  These  consisted  of 
a  regiment  of  infantry  numbering  twenty-five 
officers  and  five  hundred  and  forty-six  rank  and 
file,  an  artillery  corps  mustering  twenty-seven 
officers  and  four  hundred  and  three  rank  and 
file,  fifty-seven  men  stationed  at  the  regimental 
depots  Meuron  and  Wurttemburg  and  a  corps 
of  mountaineer  soldiers,  called  pandours,  num- 
bering two  hundred  and  ten. 

It  is  important  to  remember  that  at  this  time 
the  colonists  were  divided  in  sentiment  as  to  the 
government  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company, 
but  united  in  loyalty  to  the  States-General  and 
the  Stadtholder  of  Holland.  In  the  interior  the 
people  had  risen  up  in  a  mild  revolt,  had  dis- 


DIPLOMACY  27 

missed  the  local  magistrates  who  were  the  ap- 
pointees of  the  Company,  and  had  instituted 
incipient  republics  under  the  government  of 
representative  assemblies.  Even  in  Stellenbosch 
and  Cape  Town  the  majority  sympathized  with 
these  movements,  and  only  waited  a  favorable 
opportunity  to  declare  against  the  Company's 
rule. 

It  is  equally  important  to  know  that  the 
military,  also,  were  divided  in  sentiment  on  this 
subject.  Of  the  infantry,  the  officers  were  loyal 
to  the  Orange  party,  but  the  rank  and  file  were 
mercenaries  from  nearly  every  country  in  the 
north  of  Europe,  and  were  zealous  for  that  party 
or  nation  from  whom  they  could  draw  the  high- 
est pay.  The  artillery  corps,  on  the  contrary, 
was  composed  almost  entirely  of  Netherlanders, 
with  a  few  French  and  Germans.  These  men 
were  attached  to  the  mother  country.  A  large 
majority  of  them,  however,  sympathized  with 
the  republican  movement  in  Europe,  and  would 
have  preferred  alliance  with  the  French  rather 
than  with  the  English,  for,  at  that  time,  the  lead 
of  France  was  toward  republicanism. 

Thus  weakened  by  internal  divisions,  the 
Colony  presented  an  open  door  to  invasion  by 
any  power  that  might  covet  a  point  of  so  great 


28  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Strategic  importance  on  the  ocean  thoroughfare 
between  Europe  and  the  Orient. 

The  English  government,  when  about  to 
enter  into  hostihties  with  France,  became  appre- 
hensive that  the  French  would  perceive  the  value 
of  the  Cape  colony  and  instantly  take  forcible 
possession  of  it.  This  they  determmed  to  pre- 
vent at  any  cost;  for  the  military  occupancy  of 
the  Cape  by  the  French  would  bring  England's 
highway  to  India  under  the  control  of  her 
hereditary  foe. 

As  early  as  the  2d  of  February,  1793,  nego- 
tiations were  opened  between  the  British  gov- 
ernment and  the  Dutch  home  and  colonial 
authorities  concerning  a  strengthening  of  the 
garrison  at  the  Cape  by  a  contingent  of  British 
troops  from  St.  Helena.  The  States-General  and 
the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  in  response  to 
this  proposal,  signified  their  desire  for  aid  in  the 
form  of  warships  to  guard  the  coast  of  the  Cape 
peninsula,  and  that  in  case  such  assistance  could 
not  be  given  they  would  accept  the  offered 
troops. 

While  this  correspondence  was  going  on 
events  were  transpiring  that  occasioned  ill-feel- 
ing between  the  Dutch  and  the  English,  although 
they  were  in  alliance  against  the  French.    Being 


DIPLOMACY  29 

paralyzed  by  dissensions  among  their  own  peo- 
ple, the  States-General  made  urgent  appeals  to 
the  British  government  for  more  efficient  aid  in 
both  men  and  money.  To  these  appeals  the 
answer  of  the  English  authorities  was  a  bitter 
complaint  that  their  troops  were  already  bearing 
the  brunt  of  the  war  in  defense  of  the  Nether- 
lands, and  that  the  Stadtholder  and  his  govern- 
ment were  not  making  proper  exertions  to  raise 
men  and  money  at  home. 

In  making  such  answer,  the  British  ministers 
seemed  to  be  willfully  blind  to  the  prostrate 
condition  of  the  Dutch  government.  The  French 
had  put  the  army  of  invasion  under  the  com- 
mand of  Pichegru,  one  of  the  ablest  generals  of 
his  time.  One  after  another  the  Dutch  strong- 
holds were  falling  before  him.  The  province  of 
Friesland  was  threatening  to  make  a  separate 
peace  with  France  if  the  States-General  did  not 
hasten  to  act  in  that  direction  for  all  Holland. 
The  patriot  party  felt  such  antipathy  to  their 
English  allies  that  it  was  difficult  to  get  hospital 
accommodation  in  Dutch  towns  for  the  wounded 
British  soldiers.  And  notwithstanding  all  these 
circumstances  the  English  authorities  asserted 
that  the  Stadtholder's  failure  to  put  in  the  field 
a   large   and   well-equipped    force   was    due   to 


30  THE   AFRICANDERS 

apathy  in  his  own  cause  rather  than  to  weakness. 
The  one  measure  of  additional  help  offered  was 
that  if  the  Dutch  government  would  furnish 
five  hundred  to  a  thousand  troops  for  the  better 
defense  of  Cape  Colony  the  English  East  India 
Company  would  transport  them  thither  free  of 
charge.  It  being  impossible  for  the  Dutch  to 
furnish  the  men,  the  negotiations  came  to  an  end. 
Meanwhile,  as  was  signified  in  the  attitude  of 
Friesland,  the  Dutch  people  were  considering 
the  question  of  changing  sides  in  the  war.  That 
fact — without  the  knowledge  of  the  Stad- 
tholder — was  informally  communicated  to  the 
governor  of  Cape  Colony  in  a  letter  written  by 
the  chief  advocate  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Com- 
pany, with  the  approbation  of  the  directors.  The 
letter  reached  the  Cape  on  the  7th  of  February, 
1795,  informing  the  colonists  that  in  all  proba- 
bility Holland  might  soon  dissolve  the  alliance 
with  the  English  and  make  common  cause  with 
France.  The  letter  stated  that  matters  at  home 
were  in  an  uncertain  condition ;  that  the  French 
armies  were  advancing  and  already  had  occupied 
a  part  of  the  country,  and  that  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  be  vigilant  so  as  not  to  be  surprised  by 
any  European  power.    The  warning,  though  not 


DIPLOMACY  31 

specific  as  to  what  power,  evidently  referred  to 
England. 

Later  reports  informed  the  colonists  that  a 
French  army  under  Pichegru  was  besieging 
Breda  and  threatening  the  region  across  the 
Maas.  But  these  reports  were  not  in  the  nature 
of  official  dispatches.  They  were  communicated 
verbally  by  Captain  Dekker  of  the  frigate 
Medenblik,  which  arrived  at  the  Cape  on  the 
1 2th  of  April,  1795. 

The  next  intelligence  from  Europe  was  cal- 
culated to  perplex  and  alarm  the  colonists  to  a 
high  degree.  On  the  nth  of  June,  1795,  suc- 
cessive reports  came  by  messengers  from  Simons- 
town  to  the  castle  to  the  effect  that  several  ships 
of  unknown  nationality  were  beating  into  False 
Bay;  later  that  the  ships  had  cast  anchor,  and 
at  ten  in  the  evening  that  Captain  Dekker  had 
sent  a  boat  to  one  of  the  stranger  ships  to  ascer- 
tain particulars,  directing  the  lieutenant  in  charge 
to  wave  a  flag  if  he  found  them  friendly,  and  that 
no  such  signal  had  been  made,  nor  had  the  boat 
returned. 

The  situation  so  suddenly  developed  was,  to 
say  the  least,  disturbing.  The  governor  called 
his  council  together  to  consider  it.  After  con- 
ference the  signals  of  danger  were  made  sum- 


32  THE    AFRICANDERS 

moning  the  Burghers  of  the  country  districts  to 
Cape  Town.  Lieutenant-Colonel  De  Lille  was 
ordered  to  proceed  at  once  to  Simonstown  with 
two  hundred  infantry  and  a  hundred  gunners  to 
strengthen  the  garrison  there.  The  troops  left 
the  castle  within  an  hour  and  reached  Simons- 
town  before  noon  of  the  next  day. 

The  council  continued  in  session  until  past 
midnight,  and  after  adjournment  remained  at 
the  castle  in  readiness  to  deal  with  any  emer- 
gency that  might  arise.  At  half-past  two  in  the 
morning  of  the  12th  they  were  called  together 
again  to  consider  a  letter  just  received  from 
Simonstown.  The  communication  was  from  Mr. 
Brand,  the  official  resident  at  Simonstown,  and 
contained  interesting  news.  Captain  Dekker's 
boat  had  returned  from  its  long  visit  to  the 
strange  fleet.  With  it  had  come  a  Mr.  Ross, 
bearing  letters  for  the  head  of  the  Cape  govern- 
ment from  the  English  admiral,  Sir  George 
Keith  Elphinstone  and  Major-General  James 
Henry  Craig. 

Mr.  Ross,  having  been  supplied  with  a  horse 
and  a  guide,  reached  the  castle  and  delivered 
the  letters  in  due  time.  They  proved  to  be  three 
complimentary  notes  from  directors  of  the  Eng- 
lish   East    India    Company    to    Commissioner 


DIPLOMACY  33 

Sluysken,  g-overnor  of  the  colony.  Mr.  Ross 
also  presented  an  invitation  from  Admiral  Elph- 
instone  to  the  Commissioner  and  Colonel  Gordon 
to  visit  his  ship,  intimating  that  there  they  would 
receive  important  information  and  a  missive  from 
the  Stadtholder  of  the  Netherlands.  It  was 
noted  that  in  the  conversation  Mr.  Ross  was 
careful  to  evade  all  questions  concerning  the 
state  of  affairs  in  Europe  and  the  destination  and 
business  of  the  fleet. 

While  the  council  pondered  these  things, 
Lieutenant  Van  Vegezak,  who  had  visited  the 
English  admiral's  ship,  arrived  at  the  castle.  He 
had  little  information  to  impart.  There  were  in 
the  fleet  three  seventy-four  gun  ships,  three  of 
sixty-four  guns  each,  a  frigate  of  twenty-four 
guns,  two  sloops  of  war  carrying  the  one 
eighteen  and  the  other  sixteen  guns ;  and  there 
were  troops  on  board  under  the  command  of 
Major-General  James  Henry  Craig,  but  how 
many  he  had  not  been  able  to  learn. 

Now,  the  facts  which  accounted  for  the  pres- 
ence at  the  Cape  of  this  British  naval  and  mili- 
tary force  were  unknown  to  the  colonists.  The 
Stadtholder's  government  had  been  overthrown. 
The  democratic  party  in  Holland  had  received 
the  French  with  open  arms.    The  national  gov- 


34  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ernment  had  been  remodeled.  The  States-Gen- 
eral had  abolished  the  Stadtholderate.  And  the 
British  ministers,  alarmed  for  their  vast  pos- 
sessions in  India,  and  realizing  that  they  must 
now  depend  upon  their  own  exertions  to  keep 
the  French  from  seizing  the  port  which  prac- 
tically commanded  the  sea  route  thither,  had 
fitted  out  and  dispatched  with  all  haste  this  ex- 
pedition, with  orders  to  occupy — peacefully  if 
they  could,  but  forcibly  if  they  must — the  castle 
and  harbor  of  Cape  Town.  The  fleet  had  made 
a  rapid  passage.  One  division  sailed  on  the 
13th  of  March,  the  other  on  the  3d  of  April.  The 
two  squadrons  met  ofT  the  Cape  on  the  loth  of 
June  and  on  the  nth  cast  anchor  in  False  Bay, 

The  colonial  ofBcers  acted  with  marvelous 
caution,  considering  the  fact  that  they  were  in 
ignorance  of  the  late  events  which  had  led  to 
the  appearing  of  this  formidable  expedition  in 
South  African  waters. 

To  the  note  inviting  the  commissioner  and 
Colonel  Gordon  to  visit  the  English  admiral  on 
his  ship,  they  courteously  replied  that  it  was 
impossible  for  these  officers  to  leave  Cape  Town, 
and  begged  the  admiral  to  send  ashore  a  re- 
sponsible representative  with  the  promised  in- 
formation and  dispatch.     They  also  instructed 


DIPLOMACY  35 

the  resident  at  Simonstovvn  to  permit  the  English 
to  provision  their  ships,  but  to  allow  no  armed 
men  to  land.  A  force  of  eighty-four  Burghers 
and  thirty  gunners,  with  three  field  pieces,  was 
posted  at  Muizenburg  in  a  position  to  command 
the  road  to  Simonstown.  On  the  13th  of  Juue 
the  defensive  works  of  Simonstown  Bay  were 
strengthened  by  additional  troops,  and  three 
hundred  and  forty  infantry  and  artillerymen 
were  sent  to  further  strengthen  the  post  at 
Muizenburg. 

On  the  14th  of  June  there  came  to  the  castle 
a  deputation  from  the  Admiral,  consisting  of 
Lieutenant-Colonel  McKenzie,  Captain  Hardy 
of  the  sloop  Echo  and  Mr.  Ross,  secretary  to 
General  Craig. 

Mr.  Ross  handed  to  Commissioner  Sluysken 
a  communication  from  the  prince  of  Orange — 
late  the  Stadiholder  of  the  Netherlands,  and  sup- 
posed to  be  so  still  by  the  colonists.  The  prince's 
mandate,  dated  at  Kew  on  the  7th  of  February, 
1795,  ordered  the  Commissioner  to  admit  the 
troops  of  the  King  of  England  into  the  colony 
and  the  forts  thereof  and  to  admit  the  British 
ships  of  war  into  the  ports,  and  to  treat  the 
British  troops  and  ships  of  war  as  the  forces  of 


7jS  THE    AFRICANDERS 

a  power  friendly  to  Holland  and  sent  to  protect 
the  colony  against  the  French. 

The  deputation  from  the  admiral  also  de- 
livered to  the  Commissioner  a  joint  letter  from 
Admiral  Elphinstone  and  General  Craig,  in 
which  was  written  their  account  of  the  then  con- 
dition of  affairs  in  the  Netherlands.  They  in- 
formed him  that  the  winter  in  Europe  had  been 
exceptionally  severe ;  that  toward  the  close  of 
January  the  rivers  had  been  frozen  so  hard  as 
to  make  them  passable  for  armies ;  that  the 
French  had  crossed  on  the  ice  into  Utrecht  and 
Gildersland  and  had  driven  the  English  troops 
into  Germany  and  compelled  the  Dutch  forces 
to  surrender.  They  represented  that  it  was  a 
matter  of  only  a  few  days  for  the  whole  of  the 
country  to  fall  into  the  possession  of  the  French 
by  forced  capitulation,  without  any  previous 
terms  of  surrender,  and  that  the  Stadtholder 
only  escaped  capture  by  taking  passage  in  a 
fishing  boat,  which  carried  him  from  Scheven- 
ingen  to  England.  They  further  intimated  to 
the  Commissioner  that  this  gloomy  state  of 
things  was  only  temporary ;  that  Britain  and  her 
allies  were  preparing  to  enter  the  field  with  over- 
whelming force,  and  were  confident  of  being 


DIPLOMACY  37 

able  to  drive  the  French  out  of  Holland  in  the 
next  campaign. 

The  letter  stopped  short  of  full  particulars, 
leaving  the  colonial  authorities  in  ignorance  of 
the  cordial  welcome  given  to  the  French  by  the 
democratic  party  in  Holland,  and  of  the  re- 
modeling of  the  national  government  and  the 
abolition  of  the  Stadtholderate.  The  impression 
the  British  officers  sought  to  make  was  that 
Holland  had  been  overrun  and  conquered,  and 
was  being  treated  with  the  utmost  rigor  by  the 
French.  They  carefully  withheld  the  facts  that 
the  remodeled  government  of  the  Netherlands 
was  still  in  existence  and  that  the  French  were 
regarded  as  friends  by  a  majority  of  the  people. 
They  wished  the  colonists  to  believe  that  the 
Prince  of  Orange  was  still  the  Stadtholder  of 
the  Netherlands,  though  temporarily  a  fugitive 
in  England ;  that  he  would  be  reinstated  by  the 
help  of  his  faithful  allies  in  the  next  campaign, 
and  that  loyalty  to  his  prince  required  the  Com- 
missioner of  the  Cape  Colony  to  throw  open 
the  ports  and  the  forts  of  the  colony  to  the 
friendly  occupation  of  the  British  forces. 

The  council  decided  that  no  immediate  action 
should  be  taken  on  the  prince's  mandatory  let- 
ter.    It  was  the  command   of  a  fugitive   in   a 


38  THE    AFRICANDERS 

foreign  land  and  lacked  the  indorsement  of  the 
States-General,  and,  therefore,  had  no  official 
force.  They  were  loyal  to  the  House  of  Orange, 
but  they  felt  that  any  present  action  would  be 
taken  in  ignorance  of  the  true  state  of  affairs. 
There  was  nothing  to  guide  them  but  this  letter 
of  their  fugitive  prince  and  the  word  of  these 
armed  and  interested  visitors  who  sought  to 
occupy  their  harbors  and  strongholds  at  once. 
They  decided  to  temporize  as  far  as  they  could 
without  giving  the  strangers  peaceable  posses- 
sion, hoping  that  more  complete  and  reliable 
intelligence  from  the  Netherlands  would  reach 
them. 

The  council's  answer  to  Admiral  Elphinstone 
is  an  example  of  rare  diplomatic  acumen.  It 
assured  him  that  the  fleet  would  be  permitted 
to  take  in  all  necessary  provisions,  but  requested 
that  in  doing  so  only  small  bodies  of  unarmed 
men  be  sent  ashore.  It  also  expressed  gratitude 
to  the  British  government  for  its  evident  good- 
will, and  intimated  that,  while  contldent  of  their 
ability  to  resist  any  attack  that  might  be  made, 
they  would  ask  the  British  for  assistance  in  case 
the  French  should  attempt  to  seize  the  colony. 
It  further  requested  the  admiral  to  inform  the 
council  what  number  of  troops  he  could  furnish. 


DIPLOMACY  39 

if  any  were  needed.  The  admiral  replied  that 
General  Craig  would  visit  the  Commissioner  in 
Cape  Town  and  impart  fuller  information. 
Meanwhile  the  arrival  of  Burgher  forces  from 
Stellenbosch  enabled  the  council  to  add  two 
hundred  horsemen  to  the  post  at  Muizenburg. 

On  the  1 8th  of  June  General  Craig  met  the 
Commissioner  at  Cape  Town.  The  next  day 
the  general  was  introduced  to  the  council,  and 
laid  before  the  members  the  mission  upon  which 
he  had  been  sent  and  his  instructions  as  to  the 
manner  of  accomplishing  it.  He  stated  that  the 
fleet  and  the  troops  had  been  sent  by  his  Britan- 
nic Majesty  to  defend  the  colony  against  seizure 
by  the  French,  or  any  other  power,  and  that 
the  British  occupancy  was  intended  to  last  only 
tmtil  the  government  in  the  Netherlands  could 
be  restored  to  its  ancient  form,  when  it  was  his 
Majesty's  purpose  to  give  up  the  colony  to  its 
proper  rulers — the  Stadtholder  and  the  States- 
General  of  Holland.  He  assured  them  that  no 
changes  would  be  made  in  the  laws  and  cus- 
toms of  the  country,  nor  would  any  additional 
taxes  be  levied  without  the  expressed  desire  of 
the  people.  The  colonists  would  be  required 
to  bear  no  cost  but  that  of  their  own  govern- 
ment as  it  then  existed,  and  they  would  be  at 


40  THE    AFRICANDERS 

liberty  to  profit  largely  by  trade  with  England's 
possessions  in  India.  The  colonial  troops  would 
be  paid  by  England,  on  condition  that  they  take 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  his  Britannic  Majesty — 
the  obligation  thereof  to  last  only  as  long  as  the 
British  occupancy  of  the  colony.  The  civil 
service  would  remain  as  it  was,  and  the  present 
incumbents  retain  their  offices  until  his  Majesty's 
pleasure  should  be  made  known. 

To  this  proposal  the  council  made  answer  in 
writing,  declining  it,  and  notifying  the  general 
that  they  would  protect  the  colony  with  their 
own  forces  against  all  comers. 

Admiral  Elphinstone  and  General  Craig  re- 
sponded to  this  act  of  the  council  by  a  general 
proclamation  to  the  government  and  inhabitants 
of  the  country,  inviting  and  requiring  them  to 
accept  his  Britannic  Majesty's  protection  in  view 
of  the  certainty  that  the  French  would  endeavor 
to  seize  the  colonial  dependencies  of  the  Nether- 
lands. 

Three  days  later  the  same  officers  published 
an  address  to  the  inhabitants,  in  Dutch  and 
German,  renewing  the  offer  of  protection  under 
the  conditions  laid  before  the  council  by  Gen- 
eral Craig,  and  inviting  them  to  send  a  com- 
mittee of  their  own  selection  to  Simonstown  to 


DIPLOMACY  41 

confer  with  the  heads  of  the  British  expedition. 
The  address  emphasized  the  alternative  before 
the  people — a  French  or  an  English  occupation. 
The  former,  it  afBrmed,  would  introduce  a  gov- 
ernment on  Jacobin  principles,  and  would  re- 
sult in  anarchy,  the  guillotine,  an  insurrection  of 
the  slaves  with  all  the  horrors  that  had  been 
enacted  at  St.  Domingo  and  Guadeloupe,  isola- 
tion from  Europe,  the  destruction  of  commerce 
and  a  dearth  of  money  and  of  the  necessaries  of 
life.  But  the  English  occupation,  it  went  on  to 
say,  would  give  them  safety  under  the  wing  of 
the  only  power  in  Europe  that  was  able  to  assure 
protection  of  person  and  property  under  the 
existiilg  laws,  or  any  others  the  colonists  might 
choose  to  enact ;  it  would  secure  a  free  market 
for  all  their  products  at  the  best  prices ;  it  would 
release  their  trade  from  the  heavy  imposts  oi 
the  Dutch  East  India  Company ;  it  would  open 
and  promote  commerce  by  sea  and  land  be- 
tween all  parts  of  the  colony,  and  it  would  secure 
better  pay  for  such  of  the  colonial  troops  as 
might  choose  to  enter  the  British  military  service. 
This  appeal  directly  to  the  people  over  the 
heads  of  their  chief  ofificials,  and  to  the  cupidity 
of  their  mercenary  soldiers,  was  resented  by  the 
council,  who  notified  the  British  representatives 


42  THE    AFRICANDERS 

forthwith  that  further  communication  on  the 
subject  of  British  occupancy  was  not  desired. 

Nevertheless,  on  the  26th  of  June,  the  admiral 
and  the  general  sent  the  colonial  authorities 
another  long  letter,  reiterating  therein  their 
former  statements  to  the  effect  that  the  Nether- 
lands had  been  absorbed  by  France;  that  if  left 
to  itself  the  Cape  colony  would  be  absorbed  in 
like  manner,  and  adding  the  significant  intima- 
tion that  his  Britannic  Majesty  could  not  allow 
it  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 

The  council  responded  to  this  letter  by  pro- 
hibiting any  further  supply  of  provisions  to  the 
British  force,  and  strengthening  the  post  at 
Muizenburg  with  Burgher  horsemen,  pandours 
and  the  entire  garrison  from  Boetselaar  except 
one  man ;  he  was  left  to  spike  the  guns  in  case 
the  English  should  land.  The  council  also  wrote 
the  British  commanders  that  they  noted  the  dif- 
ference between  profifered  assistance  against  an 
invader  and  a  demand  to  surrender  the  colony  to 
the  British  government. 

When  the  real  design  of  the  English  was  re- 
vealed, the  disaffected  Burghers  of  the  Cape  and 
of  Stellenbosch  ceased  all  opposition  to  the  gov- 
ernment, and  offered  to  do  their  utmost  in  de- 
fense of  the  colony.     When  the  Commissioner 


DIPLOMACY  43 

announced  that  the  country  would  not  be  sur- 
rendered to  the  English,  the  people  cheered 
him  rapturously  in  the  streets,  and  saluted  him 
as  Father  Sluysken. 

But  notwithstanding  these  outward  signs  of 
unity  the  high  officials  and  the  people  were  not 
quite  of  one  mind.  A  majority  of  the  Burghers 
had  adopted  republican  ideas,  and,  if  they  were 
to  be  left  to  themselves,  were  ready  to  welcome 
the  French.  Such  English  visitors  as  had  come 
to  the  Cape  had  exasperated  the  colonists  by 
boastfully  predicting  the  ultimate  subjection  of 
the  colony  to  Great  Britain.  The  Burghers  be- 
lieved that  they  had  now  come  in  the  guise  of 
friendship  to  make  good  the  insulting  prediction. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  official  heads  of  the  col- 
ony were  lukewarm  in  doing  what  they  knew 
and  admitted  to  be  their  duty  for  the  defense  of 
the  colony.  Colonel  Gordon  openly  expressed  his 
readiness  to  admit  the  English  troops  whenever 
the  French  should  threaten  an  attack.  He  went 
so  far  as  to  say  that  even  in  existing  circum- 
stances  he  would  admit  them  if  they  would  cov- 
enant to  hold  the  country  for  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  but  if  their  purpose  was  to  take  posses- 
sion of  it  for  Great  Britain  he  would  resist  them 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power.     The  colonel  was 


44  THE    AFRICANDERS 

a  disappointment  to  the  English,  for  they  had 
counted  upon  the  Scotch  strain  in  his  blood  and 
his  well-known  Orange  partisanship  to  bring  him 
over  to  tlieir  designs  at  the  first. 

Thus  three  lines  of  cleavage  militated  against 
the  perfect  solidarity  of  the  colonists.  A  ma- 
jority of  the  Burghers  were  prepared  to  resist 
the  British  because  they  preferred  the  French, 
if  there  must  be  a  change  of  m.asters.  Most  of 
the  lower  officials  and  some  of  the  town  Burgh- 
ers were  ready  to  accept  the  British  occupancy, 
and  went  about  singing  Orange  party  songs  be- 
cause they  believed  the  English  were  sincere  in 
professing  that  it  was  their  sole  purpose  to  hold 
the  colony  in  trust  for  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
As  for  Commissioner  Sluysken  and  Colonel 
Gordon,  while  it  was  their  duty  to  defend  the 
Cape  interests  against  any  power  that  sought  to 
subvert  the  rule  of  the  Stadtholder  and  the 
States-General  of  Holland,  they  were  not  quite 
sure  of  the  course  they  ought  to  pursue  with  ref- 
erence to  the  English,  who  had  come  to  them 
professing  loyal  friendship  to  the  fugitive  prince 
and  accredited  to  them  by  his  mandatory  letter. 
There  was  possible  treason  in  either  admitting 
or  resisting  them.  These  circumstances  account 
for  some  lack  of  energy  on  the  part  of  the  civil 


DIPLOMACY  45 

and  the  military  heads  of  the  colony  in  defend- 
ing it  against  the  British  attack  that  was  soon  to 
follow. 


46  THE    AFRICANDERS 


CHAPTER    III. 

FIRST    CONTACT    OF    AFRICANDER    AND    BRITON    IN 
WAR, 

(I795-) 

Toward  the  end  of  June,  1795,  it  became 
evident  that  the  British  commanders,  having 
failed  to  obtain  peaceable  possession  of  the  Cape 
colony,  meant  to  use  all  the  force  necessary 
to  carry  out  their  purpose. 

On  the  24th  of  June,  three  Dutch  merchant 
ships  lying  in  Simon's  Bay  received  instruction 
from  Commissioner  Sluysken  to  proceed  to 
Table  Bay,  but  Admiral  Elphinstone  forbade 
them  to  sail.  On  the  28th  of  June,  two  small 
vessels  sailing  under  American  colors  anchored 
in  Simon's  Bay.  One  of  these — the  Columbia — 
carried  Dutch  dispatches  from  Amsterdam  to  the 
Cape  and  Batavia.  The  English  admiral 
promptly  placed  the  Columbia  under  guard  and 
seized  her  mails.  Such  letters  and  dispatches  as 
related  to  public  afifairs  were  either  suppressed 


ARMED    CONFLICT  47 

or  mutilated,  and  measures  were  taken  to  pre- 
vent newspapers  from  reaching  the  shore.  A 
single  paper,  however,  was  smuggled  into  the 
hands  of  a  Burgher,  and  was  the  means  of  con- 
veying astonishing  news  to  the  colonists.  The 
most  startling  of  its  contents  was  an  ofBcial 
notice  by  the  States-General  of  Holland,  under 
date  of  the  4th  of  March,  1795,  absolving  from 
their  oaths  of  allegiance  to  the  Prince  of  Orange 
all  his  former  subjects,  both  in  the  Netherlands 
and  in  the  Dutch  colonies. 

From  this  notice  and  from  hints  left  in  muti- 
lated letters  to  private  individuals  it  was  learned 
that  so  far  from  being  a  conquered  country 
under  the  heel  of  a  rigorous  French  military  ad- 
ministration, Holland  was  a  free  and  independ- 
ent republic ;  that  the  Stadtholderate  had  been 
abolished  by  the  free-will  action  of  the  nation, 
and  that  France  was  in  friendly  diplomatic  re- 
lations with  the  Dutch  Republic. 

Thereupon,  the  Commissioner  and  his  coun- 
cil determined  that  it  was  their  duty  to  hold  out 
against  the  English.  They  reasoned  that,  should 
the  colonial  forces  be  overpowered  in  the  end, 
the  Netherlands  would  have  a  better  claim  to 
the  restoration  of  the  country  when  peace  should 
be  made  than  would  exist  if  the  protection  of 


48  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Great  Britain  had  been  accepted  without  a 
struggle.  They  saw  a  bare  possibility  that  the 
British  force  might  be  starved  into  departure  by 
refusing  to  furnish  them  with  provisions.  More- 
over, aid  from  Europe  might  then  be  on  the  way 
and  might  reach  them  in  time  to  save  the  colony 
to  Holland.  In  any  case,  they  judged,  there  was 
nothing  to  lose  in  opposing  the  British  but  the 
control  of  the  colony,  whereas,  they  might  lose 
their  heads  as  traitors  should  a  combined  Dutch 
and  French  fleet  arrive  and  they  be  found  to 
have  surrendered  to  the  British  without  a  show 
of  resistance.  They  decided  that  both  duty  and 
personal  interest  required  them  to  make  what 
preparation  they  could  for  defense. 

By  order  of  the  council,  on  the  night  of  the 
29th  of  June,  Simonstown  was  abandoned  as 
untenable.  All  the  provisions  there  were  de- 
stroyed, the  guns  were  spiked,  such  ammunition 
as  could  not  be  carried  away  was  thrown  into 
the  sea  and  the  troops  joined  the  force  at 
Muizenburg.  Not  being  able  to  evade  the  ships 
blockading  Table  Bay,  the  council  chartered  a 
cutter  then  lying  at  anchor  in  Saldanha  Bay  and 
sent  her  with  dispatches  to  Batavia  informing 
the  Dutch  colonists  there  of  the  state  of  things 
both  at  the  Cape  and  in  Holland. 


\ 

'illfcl'kii        mil 

tf "  ^ 

'- 

PKF.SIDl.Nl     KKr(;F.R. 


ARMED    CONFLICT  49 

When  the  call  to  assemble  at  the  Cape  was 
signaled  to  the  country  Burghers,  only  seventy 
men  from  the  Swellendam  district  responded. 
The  nationals,  who  had  been  in  revolt  against 
the  Dutch  East  India  Company's  government, 
declined  to  obey.  Further  appeals  by  letter 
failed  to  bring  any  more  of  them  in.  At  last,  on 
the  7th  of  July,  in  a  written  communication,  it 
was  proposed  by  the  nationals  that  they  would 
rally  to  the  defense  of  the  country  if  the  govern- 
ment would  grant  them  amnesty  for  the  past 
and  pledge  a  reasonable  redress  of  their  griev- 
ances as  soon  as  possible.  Among  the  principal 
stipulations  were  these :  The  nationalists  were  to 
be  exempted  from  direct  taxation  and  to  have 
free  trade;  the  cartoon  money — a  depreciated 
currency — was  to  be  withdrawn  from  circula- 
tion, and  they  were  to  be  granted  permission  to 
hold  in  perpetual  slavery  all  Bushmen  captured 
by  commandos  or  individuals. 

The  nationals  had  no  sooner  dispatched  the 
letter  containing  their  overture  than  it  occurred 
to  some  of  them  that  their  claims  would  surely 
be  ignored  if  the  British  obtained  control  of  the 
colony.  Therefore,  without  waiting  for  a  re- 
sponse from  the  government,  they  resolved  to 
aid  in  the  defense  of  the  country,  and  at  the 
4 


56  THE    AFRICANDERS 

same  time  continue  to  assert  their  right  to  self- 
government.  In  accordance  therewith  a  com- 
pany of  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  mounted 
men  was  organized  under  Commandant  Delpont 
and  at  once  set  out  for  Cape  Town. 

The  rally  from  the  country  districts  of  Swell- 
endam,  Stellenbosch  and  Drakenstein  brought 
together  a  force  of  eleven  hundred  and  forty 
horsemen.  Two  "hundred  of  these  were  added 
to  the  post  at  Muizenburg.  The  rest  were  sta- 
tioned at  Cape  Town  and  along  the  road  to  the 
camp  as  pickets. 

Hostile  operations  came  on  very  slowly.  Ad- 
miral Elphinstone  seized  three  more  Dutch  mer- 
chant ships  that  were  lying  in  Simon's  Bay  or 
the  9th  of  July.  On  the  14th  he  landed  four 
hundred  and  fift  y  soldiers,  who  occupied  Simongr- 
town,  and  strengthened  the  post  a  week  later 
by  adding  four  hundred  marines. 

Strangely  enough,  neither  the  English  com- 
manders nor  Commissioner  Sluysken  chose  to 
regard  these  movements  as  acts  of  war.  The 
Commissioner  had  been  careful  to  order  that  no 
attack  should  be  made  on  the  English,  and  that 
nothing  whatever  should  be  done  that  would 
provoke  retaliation  or  furnish  grounds  for  them 
to  throw  the  blame  of  opening  hostilities  on  the 


ARMED    CONFLICT  5 1 

Dutch.  It  was  not  until  the  3d  of  August  that 
any  act  was  committed  which  was  by  either 
party  construed  into  an  act  of  war.  On  that 
day  a  Burgher  officer  fired  at  an  Enghsh  picket 
and  wounded  one  of  the  men.  For  this  he  was 
reprimanded  by  the  Commissioner.  General 
Craig  reported  it  in  his  dispatches  as  the  be- 
ginning of  hostilities. 

The  time  soon  came  when  the  British  officers 
thought  an  advance  might  be  made.  The  Dutch 
had  been  remiss  in  not  strengthening  their 
earthwork  defenses  toward  the  sea.  They  had 
permitted  English  boats  to  take  soundings  off 
Muizenburg  unmolested.  And  the  English 
commanders  had  been  encouraged  to  hope  that 
the  nationals  in  the  colonial  force  did  not  intend 
to  seriously  oppose  the  British  advance — that  in 
all  probability  they  would  come  over  in  a  body 
to  the  British  side  as  soon  as  the  first  engage- 
ment opened.  On  the  other  hand,  the  invad- 
ing army  was  utterly  without  field  guns  and 
could  not  muster  more  than  sixteen  htmdred 
men.  Re-enforcements  were  on  the  way,  but  no 
one  could  foretell  the  time  of  their  arrival.  To 
advance  any  part  of  their  military  force  beyond 
the  range  of  the  guns  on  the  ships  would  expose 
the  whole  expedition  to  destruction  in  the  event 


52  THE    AFRICANDERS 

of  a  French  squadron  appearing  in  Table  Bay 
to  co-operate  with  the  Dutch  colonists.  In 
view  of  all  the  circumstances  the  British  com- 
manders determined  to  capture  Muizenburg,  to 
reopen  negotiations  with  the  Cape  government 
from  that  position  and  to  attempt  no  further 
aggressive  movement  until  the  arrival  of  the 
expected  re-enforcements. 

On  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  August  it  be- 
came evident  to  the  Dutch  officers  at  Muizen- 
burg that  the  British  were  about  to  attack.  A 
column  of  sixteen  hundred  infantry  and  ma- 
rines was  advancing  from  Simonstown.  Two 
small  gunboats',  and  the  ships'  launches,  carry- 
ing lighter  guns,  moved  close  in  shore  about  five 
hundred  yards  in  advance  of  the  column,  to  keep 
the  road  open.  The  war  vessels  America, 
Stately,  Echo  and  Rattlesnake  were  Leading  for 
Muizen  Beach. 

The  Dutch  camp  was  at  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tain facing  False  Bay  on  the  west,  the  camp 
looking  south  and  east,  for  it  was  at  the  north- 
west angle  of  the  bay.  They  had  planted  eleven 
pieces  of  artillery  so  as  to  command  the  road 
from  Simonstown,  which  ran  along  the  west 
coast  of  False  Bay.  From  Kalk  Bay  to  Muizen- 
burg the  roadway  was  narrow,  having  the  water 


ARMED    CONFLICT  53 

on  one  side  and  the  steep  mountain,  only  a  few 
paces  away,  on  the  other.  The  mountain  ter- 
minates abruptly  at  Muizenburg,  where  begin  the 
Cape  Flats,  a  sandy  plain  stretching  across  from 
False  Bay  to  Table  Bay.  Near  the  north  end 
of  the  mountain  is  a  considerable  sheet  of  shal- 
low water  called  the  Sandvlei,  fed  in  the  rainy 
season  by  an  intermittent  brook  called  Iveyser's 
River,  emptying  into  the  north  side  of  the  vlei. 

As  soon  as  they  came  within  range  of  the 
post  at  Kalk  Bay  the  British  ships  opened  fire 
and  the  picket  stationed  there  retired  over  the 
mountain.  On  coming  abreast  of  Muizenburg 
the  fleet  came  to  anchor  and  delivered  their 
broadsides  at  easy  range  upon  the  Dutch  camp. 
The  thunders  of  the  first  fire  had  hardly  ceased 
when  the  national  battalion  of  infantry,  and  a 
little  later  the  main  body  thereof,  led  by  Colonel 
De  Lille,  fled  from  the  post  through  the  Sandvlei. 
One  company  under  Captain  Warncke  retired 
more  slowly  and  in  a  little  better  order.  Many 
of  the  artillerymen  followed,  leaving  only  a  sin- 
gle company  under  Lieutenant  ^larnitz  to  work 
the  two  twenty-four  pounders.  These,  being 
planted  on  loose  soil,  were  thrown  out  of  position 
by  the  recoil  of  every  discharge  and  could  no*, 
be  fired  asfain  until  thev  had  been  handled  back 


54  THE    AFRICANDERS 

into  place.  The  firing  was,  therefore,  slow  and 
with  uncertain  aim.  Two  men  were  killed,  four 
wounded  and  one  gun  disabled  on  the  America, 
and  one  man  was  wounded  on  the  Stately,  by 
Lieutenant  Marnitz's  fire.  Whether  it  was 
through  bad  marksmanship  or  by  design  one  can 
hardly  decide,  but  the  English  guns  were  aimed 
so  high  that  the  shot  passed  over  the  camp  and 
lodged  in  the  mountain  behind  it.  Marnitz  soon 
perceived  that  the  post  could  not  be  held,  and, 
first  spiking  the  cannon,  retired  before  the  charge 
of  the  British  column.  Nothing  was  saved  from 
the  camp  but  five  small  field  pieces. 

The  English  followed  the  retreating  burghers 
with  a  cheer.  As  soon  as  they  were  out  of  range 
of  the  British  ships  the  Dutch  endeavored  to 
make  a  stand,  but  were  quickly  driven  from  it 
by  a  bayonet  charge.  After  gaining  the  shelter 
of  the  mountain  the  Dutch  again  faced  their  pur- 
suers, this  time  with  the  support  of  guns  brouglit 
to  bear  on  the  English  from  the  opposite  side  of 
the  Sandvlei,  and  with  such  eflfect  that  they  fell 
back  to  Muizenburg.  In  this  second  collision 
one  English  officer,  one  burgher  and  two  Dutch 
artillerymen  were  killed  and  one  pandour  was 
wounded. 

Instead  of  rallying  his  men  and  making  a 


ARMED    CONFLICT 


:)D 


Stand  behind  the  Sandvlei,  as  he  might  have  done 
with  a  well-protected  front,  De  Lille  continued 
his  flight  to  Deip  River,  where  he  arrived  with  a 
fragment  of  his  command,  not  knowing  what  had 
become  of  his  artillerymen  and  burghers. 

As  soon  as  news  came  that  the  English  were 
advancing,  a  detachment  of  five  hundred  burgher 
horsemen  was  hastened  forward  from  Cape  Town 
to  Muizenburg.  On  the  way  they  learned  from 
the  fugitives  that  Muizenburg,  the  camp  and 
'everything  in  it  had  been  taken  by  the  British. 
Then  they  halted  and  encamped  on  the  plain  in 
small  parties. 

Next  morning,  the  8th  of  August,  De  Lille 
made  some  show  of  rallying  and  returned  to  the 
head  of  the  Sandvlei  leading  a  part  of  the  infan- 
try that  had  been  discomfited  the  day  before. 
The  8th  became  a  day  of  general  panic.  The 
English  advanced  in  column  to  attack  De  Lille 
at  the  head  of  the  vlei — wading  through  water 
that,  in  places,  came  above  their  waists.  Not- 
withstanding the  advantage  this  gave  him,  De 
Lille  and  all  his  command  fled  precipitately  on 
their  approach.  As  the  British  issued  from  the 
water  and  pursued  them  across  the  plain  they 
observed  a  party  of  burghers  coming  from  be- 
hind some  sandhills  on  their  flank — the  detach- 


56  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ment  that  had  come  from  Cape  Town  and 
camped  on  the  plain  during  the  night.  Assum- 
ing that  the  flight  of  De  Lille  and  the  movement 
of  this  body  were  in  the  carrying  out  of  an  am- 
buscade, the  British  fled,  in  their  turn,  and  were 
pursued  by  the  Dutch  until  they  came  under  the 
fire  of  their  own  cannon,  spiked  and  abandoned 
by  Lieutenant  Marnitz,  but  drilled  and  placed  in 
service  by  General  Craig.  While  the  English 
were  being  driven  in  by  the  Cape  Town  detach- 
ment, De  Lille  and  his  command  fled  all  day  in 
the  opposite  direction,  and  in  the  evening  camped 
within  a  mile  of  the  camping  ground  of  the  night 
before,  near  Deip  River. 

De  Lille's  conduct  in  the  field  caused  wide- 
spread indignation.  In  a  formal  document 
drawn  up  by  a  number  of  burgher  officers  and 
forwarded  to  the  Commissioner,  he  was  charged 
with  treason.  The  fiscal  who  investigated  the 
case  acquitted  De  Lille  of  treason,  there  being 
no  proof  that  he  had  conspired  with  the  British 
to  betray  his  trust.  And  yet  he  was  neither  a 
coward  nor  an  imbecile.  His  conduct  can  be 
explained  in  no  other  way  than  to  say  that  he 
was  a  devoted  partisan  of  the  House  of  Orange, 
that  he  regarded  the  nationals  as  traitors  to  their 
legitimate  ruler  and  that  he  believed  the  English 


ARMED    CONFLICT  57 

were  the  loyal  friends  of  the  rightful  sovereign 
and  the  ancient  government  of  the  Netherlands. 
For  these  reasons  he  would  not  fight  against  the 
British.  He  held  that  success  in  repelling  them 
would  result  in  handing  the  country  over  to  the 
colonial  national  party  and  to  republicanism, 
which  would  be  an  offense  against  the  divine 
rights  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.  Later  he  took 
service  with  the  British  and  was  made  barrack 
master  in  Cape  Town.  Thereafter  he  wore  the 
Orange  colors,  and  openly  vented  his  abhorrence 
of  all  Jacobins — whether  French,  Dutch  or  South 
African. 

On  the  9th  of  August  the  expected  British 
re-enforcements  began  to  arrive.  On  the  12th 
Admiral  Elphinstone  and  General  Craig  wrote 
the  Commissioner  and  his  council  announcing 
that  already  they  had  received  an  accession  of 
strength,  and  that  they  expected  the  immediate 
arrival  of  three  thousand  more  soldiers.  They 
also  repeated  the  offer  to  take  the  Cape  colony 
under  British  protection  on  the  same  terms  as 
were  proflfered  at  first,  and  added,  as  a  threat, 
that  their  men  were  becoming  exasperated  at  the 
resistance  offered  and  it  might  become  impos- 
sible to  restrain  their  fury. 

The  letter  of  the  British  commanders  was  laid 


58  THE    AFRICANDERS 

before  the  Commissioner's  council,  the  council- 
lors representing  the  country  burghers  and  the 
burgher  militia ;  and  these  were  all  requested  to 
express  their  judgment  and  their  wishes  freely. 
With  a  single  exception  they  were  unanimous  in 
adopting  a  resolution  declaring  that  the  colony 
ought  to  be  and  would  be  defended  to  the  last. 
In  accordance  therewith  the  Commissioner  trans- 
mitted to  the  British  officers  the  decision  of  the 
people,  notifying  them  that  the  colony  would 
still  be  defended. 

Notwithstanding  the  brave  front  thus  pre- 
sented to  the  invaders,  influences  were  at  work 
which  tended  toward  the  rapid  disintegration 
of  the  burgher  forces.  It  was  being  rumored 
among  them  that  the  Bushmen  were  tiireatening 
the  interior,  and  that  the  Hottentots  in  Swellen- 
dam,  and  the  slaves  in  Stellenbosch  and  Draken- 
stein,  were  about  to  rise  in  revolt.  True  or  false, 
these  alarming  rumors  caused  many  burghers  tc 
forsake  the  ranks  and  go  to  the  protection  of 
their  homes  and  their  families.  In  July  the 
burgher  cavalry  numbered  eleven  hundred  and 
forty ;  by  the  first  of  September  it  was  reduced 
to  nine  hundred.  Efforts  to  keep  up  the  orig- 
inal strength  by  the  enlistment  of  foreign  pan- 
dours,  native  half-breeds  and  Hottentots  were 


ARMED    CONFLICT  59 

unsuccessful.  Only  the  burgher  infantry,  num- 
bering three  hundred  and  fifty,  remained  intact 
— being  composed  of  residents  of  the  town. 

The  colonists  were  further  dispirited  by  an 
abortive  attempt  to  capture  certain  English  out- 
posts on  the  Steenberg.  The  attack  was  gal- 
lantly made  by  the  burgher  militia  and  pandours, 
but  being  unsupported  by  regular  troops  and 
field  artillery  they  were  repulsed.  On  the  same 
day  the  pandours  mutinied.  One  hundred  and 
seventy  of  them  marched  in  a  body  to  the  castle 
and  made  complaint  that  their  families  had  been 
ill-treated  by  the  colonists,  that  their  pay  was 
inadequate,  that  they  were  insulted  by  abusive 
remarks,  that  a  bounty  of  £40  promised  them 
for  good  conduct  had  not  been  paid,  and  that 
their  rations  of  spirits  were  too  small.  Commis- 
sioner Sluysken  so  far  pacified  them  with  prom- 
ises of  redress  that  they  returned  to  the  ranks, 
but  from  that  time  they  were  disaffected  and  sul- 
len, and  their  service  was  of  little  value. 

The  Dutch  ofificers  had  planned  a  night  at- 
tack in  force  on  the  British  camp  at  Muizenburg. 
When  they  were  about  to  attempt  it,  there  ar- 
rived, on  the  4th  of  September,  a  fieet  of  East 
Indiamen  bringing  the  main  body  of  the  British 
re-enforcements.    These  consisted  of  infantrv  of 


6o  THE   AFRICANDERS 

the  line,  engineers  and  artillerymen,  numbering, 
ill  all,  three  thousand  troops  under  the  commaxil 
of  General  Alured  Clarke.  This  had  the  effect  of 
so  completely  discouraging  the  burgher  cavalry 
that  many  of  them  gave  up  hope  and  returned  to 
their  homes.  By  the  14th  of  September  only  five 
hundred  and  twenty-one  of  this  branch  of  the 
colonial  force  remained  in  the  ranks. 

Once  more,  on  the  9th  of  September,  the 
British  commanders  issued  an  address  to  the  col- 
onists calling  upon  them  to  give  peaceable  ad- 
mission to  the  overwhelming  force  now  at  their 
gates,  and  warning  them  that,  otherwise,  they 
would  take  forcible  possession.  Commissioner 
Sluysken  replied,  as  before,  that  he  would  hold 
and  defend  the  colony  for  its  rightful  owners,  for 
so  he  was  bound  to  do  by  his  oath  of  office. 

The  English  army  in  two  columns,  between 
four  and  five  thousand  strong,  marched  from 
Muizenburg  to  attack  Cape  Town,  at  9  oclock 
in  the  morning  of  the  14th  of  September.  This 
movement  was  signaled  to  the  colonial  otiftcers 
at  the  Cape,  who  ordered  all  the  burgher  cavalry, 
with  the  exception  of  one  company,  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  regular  troops  at  Cape  Town.  A 
part  of  the  burgher  force  was  sent  out  to 
strengthen  the  Dutch  camp  at  Wynberg,  about 


ARMED    CONFLICT  6l 

half  way  from  Muizenburg  to  Cape  Town  on  the 
route  of  the  British.  Some  attempt  was  made  to 
harass  the  cohmins  on  the  march,  but  with  so 
little  effect  that  only  one  was  killed  and  seven- 
teen were  wounded. 

Major  Van  Baalen,  then  in  command  of  the 
regular  troops  at  Wynberg,  arranged  a  line  of 
battle  that  was  faulty  in  the  extreme,  and  planted 
his  cannon  in  such  position  that  they  were  prac- 
tically useless  as  weapons  of  offense  against  the 
advancing  army.  Certain  officers  of  the  artillery 
and  of  the  burgher  militia  contingent  remon- 
strated against  his  plan  of  battle,  but  it  was  in 
vain,  and  when  the  English  came  within  gun- 
fire he  retreated  with  the  greater  part  of  the  regu- 
lars. Then  followed  a  scene  of  confusion.  The 
burghers  protested,  and  cried  out  that  they  were 
being  betrayed  in  every  battle.  One  company 
of  infantry  and  most  of  the  artillery  made  a  brief 
stand  and  then  retreated  toward  Cape  Town, 
leaving  the  camp  and  all  its  belongings  to  the 
British. 

It  had  now  become  clear  to  the  burgher  cav- 
alry that  Commissioner  Sluysken,  Colonel  Gor- 
don, and  most  of  the  officers  of  the  regular  force 
intentionally  fought  to  lose — that  so  far  as  the 
republican  government  then  prevailing  in  Hoi- 


62  THE    AFRICANDERS 

land  was  concerned  they  were  traitors  at  heart, 
and  that  they  were  wilHng — after  a  mere  show 
of  resistance — to  let  the  colony  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  British  in  order  to  have  it  held  in  trust  by 
them  for  the  fugitive  prince  of  Orange.  The 
burghers,  therefor,  not  being  willing  to  risk  cap- 
ture or  death  in  battles  that  were  not  meant  to 
win  by  those  who  directed  them,  dispersed  and 
returned  to  their  homes.  Meantime  a  British 
squadron  was  threatening  Cape  Town,  but  keep- 
ing out  of  range  of  the  castle  guns. 

The  commissioner's  council  was  convened  at 
six  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the  14th  of  Septem- 
ber to  consider  a  very  serious  situation.  A  Brit- 
ish force  of  over  four  thousand  men,  thoroughly 
disciplined  and  equipped,  was  then  in  bivouac  at 
Newlands,  less  than  ten  miles  from  Cape  Town. 
The  colonial  force  was  only  about  seventeen  hun- 
dred strong  and  nearly  half  of  these  had  tl-at 
day  retreated  before  the  enemy  without  giving 
battle;  the  remainder  were  distributed  among 
the  fortified  posts  at  Hout  Bay,  Camp's  Bay  and 
Table  Valley.  If  these  were  all  loyal  and  united 
in  a  determination  to  fight  to  the  last  they  would 
certainly  be  overpowered  in  the  end.  But  they 
were  not  at  one  in  their  loyalty.  Some  were  for 
the  deposed  and  banished  prince  of  Orange,  and 


ARMED    CONFLICT  63 

therefore  favorable  to  the  English  who  professed 
to  be  his  friends.  Others  were  strong  in  their 
preference  for  the  new  republican  government 
in  the  Netherlands.  While  thus  divided  in  po- 
litical sentiments  they  were  without  leaders  in 
whom  they  could  place  confidence.  Further 
effort  at  defense  seemed  unjustifiable  in  view  of 
certain  defeat,  and  of  the  useless  destruction  of 
property  and  life  it  would  cause. 

One  member  of  the  council,  Mr.  Van  Reede 
von  Oudtshoorn,  stood  out  against  capitulation, 
offering  to  take,  with  the  corps  of  pennists  he 
commanded,  the  brunt  of  a  final  battle  with  the 
English.  The  other  members  were  unanimous 
in  deciding  to  send  a  flag  of  truce  to  the  British 
at  Newlands,  asking  for  a  suspension  of  hostili- 
ties during  the  next  forty-eight  hours  in  order  to 
arrange  terms  of  surrender.  General  Clarke 
consented  to  an  armistice  of  twenty-four  hours 
only,  beginning  at  midnight  on  the  14th  of  Sep- 
tember. 

As  a  result  of  conference  between  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Cape  government  and  the 
British  commanders  the  following  terms  of  ca- 
pitulation were  agreed  to :  The  Dutch  troops 
were  to  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war,  but  their 
officers  might  remain  free  in  Cape  Town  or  re- 


64  THE    AFRICANDERS 

turn  to  Europe  on  their  parole  of  honor  not  to 
serve  against  Great  Britain  during  the  continu- 
ance of  hostilities.  No  new  taxes  were  to  be  lev- 
ied, and  the  old  imposts  were  to  be  reduced  as 
much  as  possible  in  order  to  revive  the  decaying 
trade  of  the  colony.  All  the  belongings  of  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company  were  to  be  handed 
over  to  the  English,  but  private  rights  of  prop- 
erty were  to  be  respected.  The  lands  and  other 
properties  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company 
were  to  be  held  in  trust  by  the  new  authorities  for 
the  redemption  of  that  portion  of  the  company's 
paper  currency  which  was  not  secured  by  mort- 
gage. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  i6th  of  July  these 
terms  of  surrender  were  oflficially  completed  by 
the  signing  of  the  document  in  which  they  were 
written  by  General  Clarke  and  Admiral  Elphin- 
stone.  At  eleven  o'clock  on  that  day  the  council 
ordered  the  publication  of  the  articles,  and  that 
official  notice  of  what  had  been  done  be  sent  to 
the  heads  of  departments  and  other  officers  in 
the  country  districts.  Then  the  council  form- 
ally closed  its  last  session  and  its  existence. 

The  ceremonial  in  connection  with  the  capitu- 
lation took  place  at  three  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon of  Wednesday,  the  i6th  of  September,  1795. 


ARMED    CONFLICT  65 

Twelve  hundred  British  infantry  and  two  hun- 
dred artillerymen  under  command  of  General 
Craig  drew  up  on  the  open  grounds  in  front  of 
the  castle.  The  Dutch  troops  marched  out  of 
their  late  stronghold  with  colors  fiying  and 
drums  beating,  passed  by  the  British  line,  laid 
down  their  arms  and  surrendered  as  prisoner^  of 
yvar.  Some  of  them  did  so  in  great  bitterness  of 
soul,  muttering  and  calling  down  curses  upon 
Commissioner  Sluysken  and  Colonel  Gordon  for 
having  betrayed  and  disgraced  them.  Lieuten- 
ant Marnitz,  in  writing  of  these  events,  empha- 
sized the  fact  that  the  only  occasion  on  which  the 
head  of  the  colonial  military  establishment, 
Colonel  Gordon,  drew  his  sword  in  the  conflict 
with  the  English  was  when  he  gave  the  order  for 
the  troops  he  had  commanded  to  lay  down  their 
arms. 

Thus  it  was,  after  an  almost  bloodless  war, 
that  Cape  Colony,  founded  by  the  Dutch  and 
governed  continuously  by  the  Netherlands  for 
one  hundred  and  forty-three  years,  passed  into 
the  possession  of  Great  Britain  and  became  a 
crown  colony  thereof.  The  charges  made  by 
some  that  Commissioner  Sluysken  and  Colonel 
Gordon  were  either  imbeciles  or  traitors  may  not 
be  quite  in  accordance  with  the  facts.     Certainly 

5 


66  THE    AFRICANDERS 

there  is  a  wide  disparity  between  the  always 
strong  and  defiant  words  in  which  they  an- 
nounced, to  the  last  moment,  their  determinalion 
to  defend  the  colony,  and  the  puerile  efforts  they 
made  to  do  so.  The  only  rational  explanation  of 
their  conduct  is  that  they  preferred  yielding  to 
the  British,  after  making  a  show  of  resistance,  to 
accepting  in  the  colony  the  new  regime  of  re- 
publicanism that  prevailed  in  the  mother  country. 
In  all  probability  their  secret  thought  was  that 
by  prolonging  a  nominal  resistance  they  might 
gain  time  enough  for  something  to  occur  in 
Europe — where  events  were  moving  with  bewil- 
dering rapidity — something  that  would  reinstate 
the  Prince  of  Orange  as  Stadtholder  of  the  Neth- 
erlands, and  so  leave  the  British  no  pretext  for 
seizing  the  colony  in  his  interest. 

This  chapter  may  fittingly  close  with  a  few 
brief  records  of  events  that  lead  up  to  the  first 
trek  northwards  of  the  Africanders. 

The  Cape  colony  was  restored  to  the  Dutch 
on  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  of  Amiens,  in 
t8o2.  When  war  broke  out  afresh  in  Europe, 
in  1806,  the  English  again  seized  the  Cape  to  pre- 
vent Napoleon  from  occupying  so  important  a 
naval  station  and  half-way  house  to  the  British 
possessions  in  India.     The  second  seizure  was 


ARMED      CONFLICT.  6/ 

accomplished  after  a  single  engagement  with  the 
Dutch.  In  1814  the  colony  was  formally  ceded 
to  the  British  crown  together  with  certain  Dutch 
possessions  in  South  America,  by  the  reinstated 
Stadtholder  of  the  Netherlands,  who  received  in 
return  therefor  a  money  consideration  of  thirty 
million  dollars. 


68  THE    AFRICANDERS 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    AFRICANDERS'    FIRST    TREK    TO    THE    NORTH. 
1806— 1838. 

When  the  British  took  forcible  possession  of 
the  Cape  colony  a  second  time,  in  1806,  they 
found  a  total  population  of  74,000.  Of  these 
17,000  were  native  Hottentots,  30,000  were  slaves 
of  African,  Asiatic  and  mixed  blood,  and  27,000 
were  of  European  descent — mostly  Dutch,  With  a 
sprinkling  of  German  and  French.  Nearly  all 
spoke  the  dialect  of  Holland  Dutch,  into  which 
the  speech  of  a  people  so  mixed  and  so  isolated 
had  degenerated. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  secoijd  English  re- 
gime there  was  a  fair  promise  of  peace  and  of  the 
gradual  fusion  of  the  Africander  and  the  English 
elements  in  a  homogeneous  people.  The  Dutch, 
from  whom  the  Africanders  were  principally  de- 
scended, and  the  English  were  cognate  nations. 
Though  separated  as  to  national  life  and  history 


FIRST   TREK  69 

by  fourteen  centuries,  they  possessed  the  same 
fundamental  principles  that  give  tone  to  charac- 
ter— the  two  languages  were  so  far  alike  that 
the  one  people  found  it  easy  to  learn  the  speech  of 
the  other ;  they  both  loved  liberty,  and  they  both 
held  the  Protestant  faith.  On  the  surface  of 
things  there  was  every  reason  to  expect  that  the 
common  features  in  blood,  language,  political 
ideals  and  religion  would  lead  to  kindly  inter- 
course, intermarriages,  and  a  thorough  blending 
of  the  two  races  in  one. 

The  first  few  years  of  experience  seemed  to 
strengthen  this  promise  of  good  into  certainty. 
Two  successive  British  governors  were  men  of 
righteousness  and  wisdom.  The  restrictions 
upon  trade  imposed  by  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  were  removed.  Schools  were  founded. 
Measures  were  taken  to  improve  the  breed  of 
horses  and  cattle.  The  trade  in  slaves  was  for- 
bidden, and  missionaries  were  sent  among  the 
natives.  The  administration  of  this  period  was 
careful  to  leave  untouched  as  far  as  possible  the 
local  institutions,  the  official  use  of  the  Dutch 
language,  and  the  Dutch-Roman  law,  which  had 
become  the  common  law  of  all  civilized  South 
Africa,  both  Dutch  and  English. 

Under  these  favoring  influences  the  two  peo- 


yO  THE    AFRICANDERS 

pies  became  friendly  and  began  to  intermarry. 
In  1820  the  British  government  promoted  emi- 
gration from  England  and  Scotland  to  South 
Africa,  to  the  extent  of  about  five  thousand. 
From  that  time  there  was  a  steady  increase  of  the 
population  from  Great  Britain,  and  to  a  much 
smaller  extent  from  Germany,  France  and  other 
European  nations.  The  newcomers  from  con- 
tinental Europe  soon  lost  their  nationality  and 
learned  to  speak  either  English  or  the  local 
Dutch  dialect. 

The  promise  of  peace,  and  of  the  complete 
fusion  of  all  the  elements  in  one  people  loyal  to 
the  British  crown,  was  not  fulfilled.  The  causes 
of  the  failure — then  insidious,  but  now  easy  to 
detect  and  analyze — must  be  considered  at  this 
point,  for  only  in  their  light  can  we  understand 
the  Africander  people  and  form  a  just  judgment 
of  their  subsequent  course. 

Doubtless  the  colonists  were  influenced,  to  a 
greater  degree  than  they  realized,  by  the  natural 
dislike  of  any  civilized  people  to  be  transferred 
to  the  rule  of  a  foreign  nation.  They  were  not 
the  kind  of  people  to  make  much  of  the  fact  that 
the  Dutch  and  the  English  sprang  from  a  com- 
mon origin  more  than  fourteen  hundred  years 
before — if  they  had  any  knowledge  of  it.  To  them 


FIRST    TREK  7I 

the  British  were  a  different  race,  and  the  British 
government  was  a  kind  of  unloved  step-father 
who  had  first  conquered  dominion  over  them  by 
the  strong  hand  and  then  bought  them  witli 
money,  as  perpetual  chattels,  from  their  degen- 
erate mother  country. 

Another  cause  of  the  failure  to  amalgamate 
was  in  the  now  fixed  character  of  the  South 
African  Dutch.  Few  of  them  dwelt  or  cared  to 
dwell  in  village  communities.  Some  were  farm- 
ers, it  is  true,  living  in  touch  with  the  towns  ;  but 
most  of  them  were  stockmen  roaming  in  a  pas- 
toral life  over  large  tracts  of  the  country — almost 
without  local  habitation.  At  long  intervals  they 
saw  something  of  their  always  distant  next 
neighbor  ranchmen,  but  they  saw  nothing  of  the 
life  in  the  few  colonial  towns.  The  intercourse 
between  these  pastoral  Africanders  and  the  Brit- 
ish was  so  infrequent,  and  so  limited  as  to  scope, 
that  the  two  races  knew  but  little  of  one  another. 
As  a  result,  the  process  of  social  amalgamation, 
going  on  at  Cape  Town  and  in  some  other  places 
where  the  population  lived  in  communities,  made 
little  progress  in  the  country  districts  where  the 
great  majority  of  the  Africanders  dwelt. 

A  single  incident,  of  no  great  proportions  in 
itself,  must  be  given  a  separate  mention  among 


^2  THE    AFRICANDERS 

the  causes  of  estrangement  between  the  two  civi- 
Hzed  races  in  South  Africa.  It  was  not  so 
much  the  cause  of  a  new  hne  of  cleavage  as  it 
was  the  wedge  driven  to  the  head  into  one  of  the 
existing  Hnes.  In  1815  a  Boer  was  accused  of 
seriously  injuring  a  native  servant.  When  the 
authorities  sent  out  a  small  force  to  arrest  tl  e 
accused  his  neighbors  rallied  to  his  defense,  and 
a  brief  resistance  was  offered  to  the  serving  of 
the  warrant.  The  uprising — a  mere  neighbor- 
hood affair — was  easily  suppressed.  Several 
prisoners  were  taken,  six  of  whom  were  con- 
demned to  death.  Five  of  the  condemned  were 
hanged,  and  their  women — who  had  fought  be- 
side them — were  compelled  to  stand  by  and  wit- 
ness the  execution.  Some  promise  of  reprieve 
had  been  made  by  the  governor.  Lord  Charles 
Somerset.  The  crowd  of  Africanders  stood  about 
the  gallows  on  the  fatal  day,  hoping  to  the  last 
moment  that  their  friends  would  be  spared,  but 
no  reprieve  came.  The  tragedy  was  completed, 
and  the  story  of  it  went  into  the  Africander  folk- 
lore, becoming,  and  remaining  to  this  day,  a 
part  of  the  nursery  education  of  every  Africander 
child.  They  named  the  ridge  on  which  the  exe- 
cution took  place,  "Schlachter's  Nek,"  which, 
being  interpreted,  is  "Butcher's  Ridge."     Canon 


FIRST   TREK  73 

Knox  Little,  in  his  late  work  on  South  Africa,  is 
authority  for  the  statements  that  Lord  Somer- 
set actually  reprieved  the  condemned  men,  that 
the  reprieve  reached  the  Field-Cornet  appointed 
to  carry  out  the  execution  in  good  time  to  save 
the  victims,  and  that  the  Field-Cornet  executed 
the  death  warrant  having  the  governor's  reprieve 
in  his  pocket,  being  actuated  to  the  murderous 
deed  by  private  spite.  The  Canon  adds  that  the 
Field-Cornet  was  so  sure  that  he,  himself,  would 
be  punished  for  his  iniquity  that  he  committed 
suicide.  It  is  to  be  devoutly  hoped  that  the 
learned  Canon  is  well  informed  both  as  to  the 
governor's  purpose  of  mercy  and  the  Cornet's 
motive  for  suicide.  Whatever  the  interior  facts 
may  have  been,  they  were  unknown  to  the  Afri- 
canders. The  cruel  act — justified  by  the  doers 
as  a  piece  of  necessary  firmness — caused  bitter 
and  widespread  resentment  at  the  time,  and  con- 
tinues to  foster  anti-British  feeling  among  all  the 
Dutch  of  South  Africa. 

Another  cause  that  made  for  disruption  was 
an  unwarrantable  and  most  unwise  interference 
of  the  British  authorities  with  two  cherished  and 
guaranteed  rights  of  the  colonists — the  old  system 
of  local  government,  and  the  use  of  the  Dutch 
language  in  official  documents  and   legal  pro- 


74  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ceedings.  In  the  forms  of  government  changes 
were  made  which  greatly  reduced  the  share  for- 
merly enjoyed  by  the  people  in  the  control  of 
their  local  affairs.  The  substituting  of  English 
for  Dutch  in  official  and  legal  documents  was  a 
still  more  serious  grievance  to  a  people  of  whom 
not  more  than  one-sixth  understood  English. 

Still  another  cause  of  disaffection  grew  out  of 
wars  with  the  Kaffirs  on  the  eastern  border.  Be- 
tween 1779  and  1834  four  struggles  to  the  death 
occurred  between  the  whites  and  the  tribes  living 
beyond  Fish  river.  By  dint  of  hard  fighting  the 
Kaffirs  were  finally  subdued  and  driven  forth 
into  the  Keiskama  river  region.  But  for  some 
reason  the  home  government  assumed  that  the 
colonists  had  ill-treated  the  natives  and  provoked 
them  to  war.  The  dear  bought  victories  of  the 
whites  were  rendered  sterile  by  strict  orders  from 
the  British  Colonial  Office  that  the  Kaffirs  be  al- 
lowed to  return  to  their  old  haunts,  where  they 
once  more  became  a  source  of  constant  appre- 
hension to  the  border  farmers.  This  action  on 
the  part  of  the  home  authorities  was  taken  as  an 
evidence  of  either  weakness  or  hostility  to  the 
Africander  population,  and  led  them  to  think  of 
the  British  Colonial  Office  as  their  enemy. 

The  final,  probably  the  principal,  cause,  the 
one  that  fanned  the  slumbering  resentment  of 


FIRST   TREK  75 

many  things  into  active  flame,  arose  out  of  tfie 
slave  question.  To  the  great  detriment  of  their 
manhood  and  womanhood  the  early  Dutch  colo- 
nists resorted  to  slave  labor.  From  1658  on- 
ward slavery  had  been  practiced  throughout  the 
colony,  as,  indeed,  it  had  prevailed  in  most  of 
the  world.  Trouble  began  to  grow  out  of  it  as 
early  as  1737.  In  that  year  the  first  European 
mission  to  the  Hottentots  was  undertaken  by  the 
Moravian  church.  Their  work  was  much  ob- 
structed by  the  colonists,  who  even  compelled 
one  pastor  to  return  to  Europe  because  he  had 
administered  Christian  baptism  to  some  native 
converts.  In  later  years  most  of  the  mission- 
aries came  from  England,  where  the  anti-slavery 
sentiment  was  fast  becoming  dominant,  and  from 
1810  the  English  missionaries  were  cordially  dis- 
liked by  the  colonists  because  they  openly  es- 
poused the  cause  of  the  slaves  and  reported  every 
case  of  cruelty  to  them  that  came  to  their  knowl- 
edge. Possibly  they  sometimes  exaggerated,  as 
it  has  been  asserted  of  them,  but  this  may  be  ex- 
cused in  the  only  friends  the  oppressed  blacks 
had.  Besides  this  conflict  between  the  slave- 
owners and  the  missionaries,  there  was  a  steady 
increase  of  disaffection  from  a  cognate  cause — 
the  temper  and  action  of  the  government  to- 
wards the  servile,  classes.     In  1828,  to  the  great 


76  THE    AFRICANDERS 

disgust  of  the  colonists,  a  civil  ordinance  placed 
all  Hottentots  and  other  free  colored  people  of 
South  Africa  on  the  same  footing  with  the 
whites  as  to  private  civil  rights.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  enactments  restricting  the  authority  of 
masters  over  their  slaves,  the  purpose  being  to 
mitigate  the  sufferings  of  the  enslaved.  Then 
came  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  all  British  do- 
minions, in  1834.  To  provide  compensation  to 
slave-owners  parliament  set  apart  the  sum  of 
£20,000,000,  to  be  distributed  to  the  several  col- 
onies where  slavery  had  existed.  The  share  of 
this  amount  appropriated  to  the  Cape  Colony 
slave-holders  was  a  little  over  £3,000,000 — a  sum 
considerably  below  the  equitable  claim  for  the 
39,000  slaves  to  be  set  free.  ^Additional  irrita- 
tion was  felt  when  it  was  found  that  the  certifi- 
cates for  compensation  were  made  payable  in 
London  only,  so  that  most  of  the  Cape  slave- 
holders were  forced  to  sell  them  to  speculators 
at  a  heavy  discount.  Many  farmers  were  im- 
poverished by  the  change,  and  labor  became  so 
scarce  and  dear  that  it  was  impossible  to  carry 
on  agriculture  to  profit. 

Serious  enough  was  the  summing  up  of  the 
causes  that  made  for  the  disruption  of  the  Dutch 
and  the  English  classes  in  Cape  Colony.  Hith- 
erto the  Africanders  had  been  able  to  indulge 


FIRST   TREK  77 

their  love  of  independence  by  living  apart  from 
the  centers  of  organized  government.  But  now 
they  had  come  under  the  conquering  hand  of  an 
alien  and  masterful  people;  they  had  been  sold 
for  money  by  their  mother  country;  they  had 
been  treated  with  undue  sharpness  and  cruelty — 
as  witness  the  atrocity  of  Schlachter's  Nek ;  they 
had  been  spied  upon  and  denounced  by  the  mis- 
sionaries ;  they  had  been  forced  to  transact  all 
their  official  and  legal  business  in  a  foreign  lan- 
guage which  few  of  them  understood ;  the  savage 
native  blacks  had  been  put  on  a  level  with  them ; 
their  victory  over  the  Kaffirs  at  the  cost  of  much 
blood  had  been  rendered  fruitless  by  the  inter- 
ference of  the  home  government ;  and  now  their 
slave  property,  which  they  had  acquired  under 
law,  had  been  taken  away  without  adequate  com- 
pensation, and  the  further  practice  of  slavery  had 
been  interdicted. 

Rebellion  against  the  power  of  Great  Britain 
was  hopeless  and  not  to  be  thought  of.  But 
they  could  go  out  into  the  wilderness  and  begin 
life  anew  where  they  could  follow  the  independ- 
ent pastoral  pursuits  they  preferred,  enjoy  the 
isolation  and  solitude  they  loved,  preserve  all 
their  ancient  customs,  and  deal  with  whatever 
native  people  they  might  find  there  in  their  own 
way,  untrammeled  by  the  English  who  had  un- 


78  THE    AFRICANDERS      . 

dertaken  to  govern  them  on  principles  whicli 
they  could  neither  understand  nor  approve. 

Then  began  the  "Great  Trek"  of  1836 — the 
Africander  secession  and  exodus,  leaving  their 
former  country  to  the  possession  of  the  English, 
and  seeking  towards  the  north  for  a  country 
wherein  they  would  be  free  according  to  their 
own  ideals  of  liberty. 

To  the  north  and  east  of  the  utmost  limit  of 
European  settlement  in  1836  was  a  region  now 
divided  into  the  Orange  Free  State,  The  Trans- 
vaal or  South  African  Republic,  and  the  British 
colony  of  Natal.  A  few  hunters  had  penetrated 
a  little  way  into  it,  and  some  enterprising  border 
farmers  had  occasionally  driven  their  flocks  and 
herds  into  the  southern  fringe  of  it  in  search  of 
better  pasture.  It  had  been  described  by  the 
few  who  had  explored  it  as  having  districts  that 
were  well  watered  and  fertile — a  country  of  ara- 
ble and  pasture  lands.  Within  it,  and  bordering 
close  to  it  on  the  northwest,  were  the  fierce 
Zulus  ;  and  it  abounded  with  big  game  and  enor- 
mous beasts  of  prey.  But  the  Africanders  knew 
what  it  was  to  battle  for  place  and  for  life  with 
wild  beasts  and  savage  men.  They  had  less 
dread  of  these  than  of  the  experiences  they  fore- 
saw for  themselves  under  the  new  government 
set  up  in  Cape  Colony.  They  made  choice  of  the 


fIRST   TREK  79 

wilderness  with  all  its  hardships  and  perils,  and 
set  forth. 

One  may  not  be  able  to  laud  all  their  motives 
for  taking  this  course,  as  we  judge  such  matters 
now,  after  more  than  half  a  century  during  which 
there  has  been  a  constant  brightening  of  the 
light  of  moral  truth.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
their  action  was  taken,  in  part,  because  of  at- 
tachment to  slavery.  But  condemnation  of  that 
part  of  their  complex  motives  should  be  mod- 
ified by  the  thought  that  the  best  peoples  of  the 
world  were  just  then  coming  to  see  with  John 
Wesley  that  human  slavery  is  "the  sum  of  all 
villainies."  And  it  should  be  remembered  that 
nearly  thirty  years  later  than  the  Africander 
secession  and  exodus  partly  in  the  interest  of 
slavery,  fully  one-third  of  the  free  population  of 
the  United  States  seceded  from  the  Union 
wholly  in  the  interest  of  the  same  "peculiar  insti- 
tution," claiming  to  hold  their  lands  as  well  as 
their  slave  property,  and  that  it  cost  the  nation 
a  million  lives  and  a  thousand  million  dollars  to 
transmute  into  American  practice  the  lofty  senti- 
ment embodied  in  the  American  Declaration  of 
Independence  that,  being  created  equal,  all  men 
have  sacred  rights  to  "life,  liberty,  and  the, pur- 
suit of  happiness." 

After  discounting  fairly  the  nobility  of  their 


80  THE    AFRICANDERS 

motives  in  making  the  "Great  Trek,"  it  will  be 
allowed  by  every  unprejudiced  mind  that  with 
the  less  laudable  were  mingled  the  love  of  manly 
independence  and  a  reasonable  resentment  at  in- 
justices done  them  in  several  matters,  and  that 
they  were  supported  in  the  hazardous  undertak- 
ing by  a  courage  equal  to  that  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  in  venturing  into  the  New  England  wil- 
derness. 

Not  inaptly  they  compared  themselves  to 
Israel  forsaking  Egypt  and  beginning  the  long 
wilderness  journey  to  a  land  of  promise,  think- 
ing it  not  unlikely  that  the  British  governor,  like 
Pharaoh,  would  pursue  after  them  and  try  to 
turn  them  back.  But  their  Pharaoh,  after  con- 
sulting his  legal  adviser,  decided  to  let  them  go. 
It  was  serious,  indeed,  to  lose  so  many  stalwart 
and  useful  citizens,  but  there  was  no  legal  way 
of  stopping  them  ;  and  it  would  not  do  to  use  the 
strong  hand,  for  Great  Britain  had  just  abolished 
slavery. 

Slowly  and  in  small  parties  the  exodus  be- 
gan, for  there  must  not  be  cattle  enough  in  one 
train  to  exhaust  the  pasture  along  the  route  they 
were  to  follow.  Places  of  rendezvous  were  ap- 
pointed beforehand,  where,  at  necessary  inter- 
vals of  time,  all  might  come  together  for  mutual 
encouragement  and  counsel.     The  men  carried 


FIRST   TREK  8l 

arms  for  defense  and  for  the  killing  of  game  for 
food.  Long  experience  in  shooting,  not  for 
sport  but  for  life  itself,  had  made  them  almost 
infallible  marksmen — an  accomplishment  that 
proved  their  only  salvation  in  the  fierce  and  long 
continued  struggle  that  was  before  them. 

Between  1836  and  1838  nearly  10,000  Afri- 
canders set  forth,  traveling  in  large  covered  wag- 
ons drawn  by  strings  of  oxen  numbering  in  some 
cases  ten  and  even  twelve  yoke.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  know  that  among  the  few  survivors  of 
that  historic  pilgrimage  is  Paul  Kruger,  who,  as 
a  boy  of  ten  years,  helped  to  drive  his  father's 
cattle  across  velt  and  mountain  range. 

The  story  of  the  wanderings  of  these  emi- 
grant Africanders,  and  of  their  conflicts  with  the 
warlike  aborigines,  is  romantic  to  the  highest 
degree,  recalling  in  some  of  its  features  the  ad- 
ventures of  the  eleventh  century  crusaders  and 
of  the  Spaniards  in  Mexico  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. 

The  first  division  that  trekked,  consisting  of 
ninety-eight  persons  traveling  in  thirty  wagons, 
suffered  defeat  and  almost  ruinous  disaster. 
They  had  penetrated  into  the  far  northeast  be- 
yond the  Vaal  river — the  territory  of  the  present 
South  African  Republic — where  many  of  their 
number  fell  in  battle  with  the  natives.     The  re- 

6 


82  THE    AFRICANDERS 

mainder  was  rapidly  thinned  out  by  deaths  from 
fever  and  from  privation  caused  by  the  wholesale 
destruction  of  their  cattle  by  the  tsetse-fly.  After 
incredible  sufferings  a  mere  handful  escaped 
eastward  to  Delagoa  Bay. 

Another  and  larger  division  was  formed  by 
the  union  of  several  smaller  parties  at  a  rocky 
peak  called  Thaba  'Ntshu,  situated  near  the 
eastern  border  of  what  is  now  the  Orange  Free 
State,  and  visible  from  Blemfontein.  This  di- 
vision soon  became  involved  in  hostilities  with  a 
branch  of  the  fierce  Zulu  race,  known  in  later 
history  as  the  Matabele.  The  chief  of  this  tribe, 
Mosilekatze,  was  a  general  of  much  talent  and 
energy  as  well  as  a  brave  warrior.  The  Mata- 
bele, regarding  the  Africanders  as  trespassers 
upon  their  territory,  immediately  provoked  war 
by  attacking  and  massacreing  a  small  detached 
body  of  emigrants.  Doubtless  the  whites  were 
intruders ;  but  they  knew  that  the  Matabele  had 
lately  slaughtered  or  driven  out  of  that  region 
the  weaker  Kaffir  tribes,  and  therefore  had  no 
conscientious  scruples  about  meting  to  them  the 
same  treatment  they  had  measured  to  others. 
Indeed,  the  Africanders  seem  to  have  regarded 
their  relation  to  all  the  natives  as  being  similar 
to  that  of  the  Israelites  under  Joshua  to  the 
tribes  of  Canaan — they  were  there  to  possess  the 


FIRST   TREK  83 

land,  and  to  reduce  the  heathen  inhabitants  to 
submission  and  servitude  by  whatever  means  it 
might  be  necessar}-  to  use.  They  now  had  an 
unprovoked  and  murderous  attack  to  avenge, 
which  they  proceeded  to  do  with  great  prompti- 
tude and  courage.  Hurhng  their  whole  strength 
against  Motsilekatze  with  the  utmost  fury,  they 
routed  his  greatly  superior  force  with  terrific 
slaughter,  so  that  he  fled  before  them,  far  and 
fast,  toward  the  northwest,  not  halting  in  his 
flight  until  he  had  crossed  the  Limpopo  River. 
There  he,  in  turn,  made  havoc  of  the  natives 
dwelling  between  that  stream  and  the  Zambesi 
River,  and  established  in  that  region  the  Mata- 
bele  kingdom  in  such  strength  that  it  continued 
a  scourge  to  all  neighboring  peoples  until  its 
overthrow  in  1893.  By  the  defeat  and  expulsion 
of  the  Matabele  the  Africanders  obtained  posses- 
sion of  the  immense  t-erritories  lying  between  the 
Orange  River  on  the  south  and  the  Limpopo  on 
the  north.  The  small  communities  with  which 
they  were  able  to  people  the  country  at  first  grew 
in  numbers  until  they  became  in  course  of  time, 
the  population  of  the  Orange  Free  State  and  the 
Transvaal  Republic. 

Meantime,  the  largest  and  best  organized  of 
the  three  pioneering  expeditions,  under  the  capa- 
ble  leadership   of   Peter   Retief — a   man   much 


84  THE    AFRICANDERS 

respected  by  all  Africanders  to  this  day — trekked 
eastward  and  then  southward  into  the  warmer 
and  more  fruitful  country  lying  between  the 
Quathlamba  range  of  mountains  and  the  Indian 
Ocean,  Here  they  found  a  region  practically 
emptied  of  native  inhabitants,  save  a  not  very 
numerous  tribe  of  Zulus.  Native  wars  had 
nearly  depopulated  the  country  in  1820.  They 
also  found  a  small  English  settlement  at  Fort 
Natal,  where  the  flourishing  town  of  Durban  is 
now  situated.  These  few  Englishmen  had  ob- 
tained a  cession  of  the  narrow  maritime  strip 
they  occupied  from  King  Tshaka,  and  were 
maintaining  a  little  republic  as  a  temporary  form 
of  government  until  they  could  obtain  the  status 
of  a  British  colony.  They  had  applied  for  that 
standing  in  1835,  with  the  request  that  a  legisla- 
ture be  granted  them.  The  British  government 
was  still  considering  their  request,  and  was  in 
doubt  as  to  whether  it  should  occupy  the  fort  and 
establish  a  colony  there,  when  the  Africanders 
arrived.  The  settlement  was  so  insignificant, 
and  the  prospective  action  of  the  British  authori- 
ties so  uncertain  that  the  emigrants  paid  little 
attention  to  it. 

Desiring  to  live  on  terms  of  peace  with  the 
Zulus  the  Africanders  applied  to  their  king, 
Dingaan,  for  a  cession  of  territory,  rashly  visit- 


FIRST   TREK  85 

ing  his  kraal  for  that  purpose.  The  king  made 
the  grant  readily  enough,  but  the  next  day  when 
they  were  about  to  depart  after  drinking  a  fare- 
well cup  of  native  beer,  he  treacherously  ordered 
his  warriors  to  slay  his  guests,  alleging  that  they 
were  wizards.  Pieter  Retief,  with  all  who  had 
accompanied  him  on  the  embassy  perished  that 
day,  and  the  deed  was  followed  up  with  an  at- 
tack on  a  small  body  of  emigrants  camped  near 
by.  The  surprise  was  complete,  and  every  soul 
was  massacred  without  mercy. 

These  atrocities  roused  the  whole  body  of 
emigrants  to  execute  vengeance,  and  they  did  it 
so  effectually  that  anniversaries  of  that  day,  De- 
cember 1 6th,  1838,  are  still  observed  by  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Transvaal.  A  mere  handful  of  the 
Africanders  decimated  and  put  to  rout  King 
Dingaan's  great  host.  They  owed  their  victory 
to  expert  markmanship  and  horsemanship  as  well 
as  to  their  lion-like  bravery  and  prowess.  Riding 
swiftly  into  easy  range  they  fired  a  volley  with 
deadly  precision  and  then  wheeled  and  as  swiftly 
rode  out  of  reach  of  the  Zulu  assagais  without 
suffering  harm.  Several  repetitions  of  this 
maneuver  so  reduced  the  fighting  force  and  the 
courage  of  the  Zulus  that  they  turned  and  fled 
precipitately.  Two  years  later,  1840,  the  king's 
brother.  Panda,  then  in  rebellion  against  Din- 


86  THE    AFRICANDERS 

gaan,  made  common  cause  with  the  Africanders, 
and  together  they  drove  the  warUke  king  out  of 
Zululand.  Panda  was  then  made  king  in  his  broth- 
er's stead,  accepting  the  relation  of  vassal  to  the 
government  of  the  Natalia  Republic  established 
by  the  Africanders.  They  began  about  this  time 
to  survey  and  apportion  the  land,  and  founded  a 
city  about  sixty-five  miles  inland  from  Port 
Natal,  known  ever  since  as  Pietermaritzburg. 

This  action,  with  some  others  of  a  like  nature, 
brought  about  the  second  contact  of  Boer  and 
Briton,  the  subject  to  be  treated  in  the  next 
chapter. 


IN    NATAL  87 


CHAPTER  V. 

SECOND   CONTACT   OF    AFKICANDER    AND    BKITON — 
IN   NATAL. 

The  British  authorities  at  Cape  Colony  suf- 
fered the  Africanders  to  go  forth  in  peace  on 
their  Great  Trek  in  search  of  isolation  and  inde- 
pendence. But  the  light  of  succeeding  events 
shows  that,  without  formally  announcing  it  at 
first,  the  government  held  that  the  Africanders, 
go  where  they  might,  were  to  be  considered 
British  subjects,  and  that  any  territory  they 
might  occupy  would  become  British  territory  by 
virtue  of  such  occupancy. 

About  the  time  when  the  Republic  of  Natalia 
was  being  organized  by  the  Africanders  a  small 
detachment  of  British  troops  which  had  been 
landed  at  Port  Natal  was  withdrawn.  This  was 
construed  by  the  emigrants  as  an  abandonment 
by  the  British  government  of  all  claim  to  the 
country. 

It  soon  became  evident,  however,  that  the 
proceedings  of  the  new  settlers  in  Natal  were 


88  THE    AFRICANDERS 

narrowly  watched  by  the  authorities  at  the  Cape, 
and  that  some  of  the  measures  taken  were  looked 
upon  with  serious  displeasure.  The  expulsion 
of  the  Kaffirs,  and  an  attempt  to  force  them  into 
a  territory  already  occupied  by  another  tribe, 
were  condemned  as  being  likely  to  provoke  fur- 
ther disorder  and  conflict.  And  then,  the  Cape 
government,  since  the  Great  Trek,  had  asserted 
over  and  over  again  its  right  to  control  the 
Africanders  in  any  region  they  might  occupy,  as 
subjects  of  the  British  crown.  Their  action  in 
establishing  a  new  and  independent  white  state 
on  the  coast  was  viewed  with  alarm ;  for  it 
would  certainly  affect  trade  with  the  interior 
tribes,  and  it  might  create  a  local  rival  to  Brit- 
ain's maritime  supremacy  within  what  had  been 
considered  her  own  borders.  Besides,  the  colo- 
nial government  held  that  it  was  the  natural 
guardian  and  protector  of  the  natives,  and  the 
attack  of  the  Africanders  on  the  Kaffirs  living  in 
near  neighborhood  to  the  eastern  borders  of  the 
Cape  settlements  was  regarded  as  an  insolent 
aggression  which  ought  to  be  resented  and 
checked. 

The  Africanders,  on  the  other  hand,  denied 
that  the  Cape  government  had  any  authority  over 
them.  The  British  government,  they  averred, 
was   territorial    and    had   no    authority    outside 


rRKSIDKM     STKVN,  OKANCE    I'UEK    S  lA'l  K 


IN    NATAL  89 

the  region  hitherto  formally  claimed  by  the  Brit- 
ish crown.  And  they  had  trekked  out  of  the 
territory  to  which  Great  Britain  had  laid  claim 
purposely  to  be  a  separate,  free  and  independent 
people.  England's  thirty  million  dollars  had 
purchased  such  territorial  rights  and  public  im- 
provements in  South  Africa  as  were  formerly 
possessed  by  the  Netherlands,  but  her  money 
had  not  bought  people. 

At  this  time  the  British  government  was  un- 
willing to  add  to  its  already  too  extensive  colo- 
nial possessions  and  the  heavy  responsibilities 
connected  with  them.  Nevertheless,  after  care- 
ful consideration  of  all  that  would  be  involved  in 
not  checking  the  Africander  aspirations  and 
movements  towards  independence,  it  was  deter- 
mined to  establish  British  dominion  over  Port 
Natal  and  the  territory  west  of  it  as  far  as  the 
crest  of  the  Quathlamba  chain  of  mountains  and 
the  extension  of  them  to  the  north.  Pursuant  to 
this  policy  a  small  military  force  under  Captain 
Smith  was  sent  to  take  possession  of  Port  Natal 
in  1842. 

Smith's  command  was  selected  from  the  post 
garrison  at  Umgazi  River,  and  consisted  of  only 
two  hundred  men  and  two  field  pieces.  The 
route  was  over  nearly  three  hundred  miles  of  sea 
coast  in  a  wilderness  state,  across  numerous  nv- 


90  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ers,  and  through  the  habitat  of  elephants  and 
hons  whose  fresh  spoor  the  men  saw  frequently. 
Alter  an  arduous  march  of  thirty-five  days, 
from  the  31st  of  March  to  the  4th  of  May,  they 
reached  Port  Natal  and  camped  on  a  hill  about 
six  miles  from  the  town. 

The  resident  English,  while  rejoiced  to  see 
the  soldiers,  were  both  amused  and  alarmed 
when  they  saw  how  small  a  force  had  been  sent 
to  deal  with  a  people  who  could  muster  1,500 
well-armed  men.  Nothing  daunted,  however, 
Captain  Smith  took  a  few  of  the  artillery  and 
marched  into  the  town  on  the  5th  day  of  May, 
hauled  down  the  flag  of  the  Natalia  Republic, 
hoisted  in  its  place  the  British  Union  Jack,  and 
spiked  the  one  Africander  gun  found  beside  the 
flagstaff. 

For  the  next  few  days  there  was  much  diplo- 
matic correspondence  between  the  Africander 
leader,  A.  W.  Pretorius,  and  the  English  com- 
mander— without  coming  to  any  terms  of  agree- 
ment. In  the  meantime  the  English  moved 
their  encampment  to  a  piece  of  level  ground  in 
front  of  the  town,  and  the  Africanders  began  to 
gather  a  force  at  the  old  Dutch  camping  ground 
on  the  Congella,  about  three  miles  from  the  Brit- 
ish force.  Captain  Smith  had  written  instruc- 
tions to  give  the  "emigrant  farmers"  fifteen  days 


IN    NATAL  91 

to  come  to  a  decision,  which  time  the  farmers 
used  in  strengthening  their  ranks  and  intrench- 
ing their  camp. 

It  will  throw  light  on  the  policy  pursued  at 
this  time  by  the  Africanders  to  take  into  view 
the  action  of  a  certain  Dutch  ship-master  who 
put  into  Port  Natal  one  day  before  the  arrival 
of  the  British.  This  man,  Captain  Reus,  speak- 
ing as  one  having  authority,  gave  the  African- 
ders to  understand  that  the  Dutch  government 
would  espouse  their  cause  and  interest  other 
European  powers  therein.  He  also  advised 
them  to  pursue  an  evasive  policy,  to  avoid  col- 
lision, and  to  keep  the  English  in  play  till  their 
friends  in  Europe  could  act.  In  accordance 
with  this  advice  the  Africanders  drew  up  a  dec- 
laration of  allegiance  to  the  Dutch  government, 
coupled  with  a  protest  against  the  occupation  of 
the  country  by  the  English.  With  the  exception 
of  the  occasional  lifting  of  cattle,  they  refrained 
from  acts  of  hostility. 

Matters  continued  in  this  state  until  the  23d 
of  May — three  days  in  excess  of  the  fifteen  al- 
lowed the  Africanders  for  consideration — when 
a  night  attack  was  made  on  their  camp  by  the 
British.  Captain  Smith  found  his  enemy  on  the 
alert,  and  after  a  sharp  engagement  in  which  the 
British  lost  103  men  in  killed,  wounded  and  miss- 


92  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ing,  and  both  the  field  guns,  he  retired  to  the 
fortified  camp  near  Port  Natal. 

The  Africanders  immediately  laid  siege  to  the 
British  garrison  and,  doubtless,  would  have 
compelled  it  to  surrender  in  the  end  had  it  not 
been  for  the  bravery  and  endurance  of  a  young 
Englishman  named  Richard  King.  It  was  six 
hundred  miles,  across  the  breadth  of  Kaffraria, 
from  Port  Natal  to  Grahamstown,  the  nearest 
point  at  which  help  for  the  beleaguered  garrison 
could  be  found.  Young  King  made  the  dis- 
tance, crossing  two  hundred  rivers  on  the  way, 
in  ten  days — really  in  eight,  for  he  was  com- 
pelled by  fever  to  rest  two  days  out  of  the  ten. 

Immediately  on  receipt  of  the  news  at  Gra- 
hamstown, a  force  under  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Cloete  was  dispatched  by  sea,  and  reached  the 
famished  garrison  after  it  had  endured  a  close 
siege  of  thirty-one  days.  The  approach  of  the 
re-enforcements  was  resisted  in  an  action  in 
which  the  British  succeeded  in  landing,  drove 
the  Africanders  from  their  positions,  and  effected 
a  junction  with  the  garrison  in  Port  Natal.  The 
loss  of  life  in  this  engagement  was  not  severe, 
but  the  siege  was  raised,  and  no  fresh  hostilities 
were  undertaken  at  that  time.  The  African- 
ders withdrew  to  a  camp  about  twelve  miles 
from  Port  Natal,  where  they  awaited  develop- 


IN    NATAL  93 

ments — expecting  to  be  attacked.  But  the  Brit- 
ish commander  was  not  in  a  position  for  imme- 
diate aggression.  His  provisions  and  ammuni- 
tion were  to  be  landed,  and  there  were  safe  mag- 
azines to  be  provided  and  strategic  posts  to  be 
established. 

On  the  30th  of  June,  1842,  A.  W.  Pretorius, 
commandant  of  the  Africander  force — now  four 
hundred  strong — sent  a  communication  to  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Cloete,  asking  if  he  wished  to 
confer  with  them.  The  reply  was  to  the  etifect 
that  no  negotiations  would  be  entered  into  with- 
out a  previous  declaration  by  the  Africanders  of 
their  submission  to  the  British  government. 

On  the  3rd  of  July  Mr.  Pretorius  again  wrote 
the  British  commander,  complaining  that  the 
KafifirS  were  committing  serious  outrages  upon 
his  people  and  plundering  them  of  their  cattle, 
which  were  being  sold  to  the  English.  He  also 
informed  the  commander  that,  anxious  as  they 
were  to  put  an  end  to  the  war  and  so  prevent  all 
future  bloodshed,  the  Africanders  found  it  im- 
possible to  accede  to  the  condition  imposed  as 
a  necessary  preliminary  to  negotiations  for 
peace,  viz. :  that  the  Africanders  should  declare 
their  submission  to  the  British  crown.  Mr.  Pre- 
terms added,  as  a  reason  for  this,  that  they  had 


94 


THE    AFRICANDERS 


already  made  over  the  country  to  the  king  of  the 
Netherlands,  and  had  invoked  his  protection. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Cloete  replied  on  the  same 
date,  deploring  the  melancholy  prospect  of  contin- 
ued war,  which  would  doubtless  be  complicated 
with  such  barbarities  as  the  native  savages  might 
be  expected  to  perpetrate.  But  he  maintained  that 
the  Africanders  were  themselves  responsible  for 
-that  prospect,  because  of  their  determined  acts 
of  hostility  to  the  British  government.  He  inti- 
mated that,  if  they  were  sincere  in  the  professed 
desire  to  avert  the  coming  bloodshed,  there 
would  be  nothing  degrading  in  giving  in  their 
submission  to  her  Britannic  Majesty's  govern- 
ment, and  assured  them  that  there  was  every  dis- 
position on  the  part  of  the  British  authorities  to 
make  the  final  adjustment  of  affairs  both  just  and 
generous  toward  the  emigrant  farmers.  He  also 
expressed  much  regret  that  they  had  allowed 
themselves  to  be  deceived  with  regard  to  the  in- 
tentions of  the  King  of  Holland  by  a  person  pos- 
sessed of  no  authority  to  act  in  the  matter.  He 
should  be  happy,  he  added  in  closing,  to  use  his 
best  efforts  to  prevent  acts  of  violence  by  the 
Zulus  and  Kaffirs,  but  felt  his  inability  to  do 
much  in  that  respect  as  long  as  the  Africanders 
continued  in  arms  against  her  Majesty's  author- 
ity, and  thus  gave  these  tribes  reason  to  think 


IN   NATAL  95 

that  whatever  injury  done  to  her  rebellious  sub- 
jects must  be  pleasing  to  her  government. 

The  diplomatic  correspondence  was  pro- 
longed into  1843,  when  a  meeting  between  Mr. 
Pretorius  and  other  Africander  leaders  and 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Cloete  attended  by  three  or 
four  advisers  took  a  place  at  Pietermaritzburg. 
The  outcome  of  the  conference  was  a  treaty  b}'' 
which  Natal  was  declared  a  British  colony,  but 
it  was  remarkably  indefinite  as  to  other  particu- 
lars. The  Africanders  were  to  acknowledge 
themselves  British  subjects,  but  were  not  re- 
quired to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
queen.  The  guns  they  had  captured,  as  well  as 
all  their  own  ordnance,  were  to  be  given  up. 
All  public  and  private  property  was  to  be  re- 
stored to  the  rightful  owners  or  custodians.  All 
prisoners  were  to  be  released,  and  a  general  am- 
nesty was  to  be  proclaimed  to  all  persons  who 
had  been  engaged  in  hostilities  against  her 
Majesty's  troops  and  authority,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  four  persons,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Pre- 
torius. By  a  subsequent  article  in  the  treaty  the 
lieutenant-colonel  included  Mr.  Pretorius  in  the 
amnesty  in  consideration  of  his  valuable  services 
and  co-operation  in  arranging  the  final  adjust- 
ment of  the  terms  of  surrender. 

The  Volksraad  of  the  little  Africander  repub- 


96  THE    AFRICANDERS 

lie  submitted  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  and  to 
the  British  administration,  in  much  bitterness 
and  wrath,  protesting  vehemently  but  without 
effect  against  a  certain  leveling  up  process,  intro- 
duced soon  after  the  transfer  of  authority,  by 
which  the  savage  blacks  were  given  equal  civil 
rights  with  the  whites. 

How  the  Africanders  of  Natal  in  general  re- 
ceived the  new  regime,  and  how  they  acted 
under  it,  will  be  the  subject  of  another  chapter. 

The  annexation  of  the  young  republic  by  the 
English  defeated  the  first  attempt  of  the  African- 
ders to  secure  access  to  the  sea.  It  seemed  to 
be  a  turning  point  in  the  history  of  South  Africa, 
for  by  it  Great  Britain  obtained  command  of  the 
east  coast,  and  established  a  new  center  of  Brit- 
ish influence  in  a  part  of  the  country  which  has 
come  to  be  called  the  garden  of  Africa.  More- 
over, it  opened  the  way  for  the  acquisition  of 
large  contiguous  territories  in  Zululand  and  in 
Tongaland. 

It  has  been  said  that  if  the  little  Dutch  repub- 
lic had  been  left  to  itself  the  natives  would  have 
suffered  under  a  more  rigorous  treatment  than 
they  have  experienced  at  the  hands  of  the  British 
government,  and  that  the  internal  dissensions 
which  became  quite  serious  during  its  brief  his- 
tory would  have  necessitated  British  interference 


IN   NATAL  97 

in  the  general  interest  of  European  South  Africa. 
But  one  cannot  feel  perfect  confidence  in  unin- 
spired prophecy.  And  one  cannot  repress  the 
feeling  that  the  people  who  had  trekked  into  an 
unclaimed  and  unoccupied  country  for  the  sake 
of  being  isolated  from  the  British,  who  had  sub- 
dued the  savage  Zulu  tribes  and  set  up  a  civilized 
government  of  their  own,  were  seized  of  sacred 
rights  to  peaceful  possession  and  independence. 


98  THE   AFRICANDERS 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SECOND   CONTACT    OF    AFRICANDER   AND   BRITON — 
NORTH   OF   THE   ORANGE   RIVER. 

The  Africanders  who  had  trekked  into  the 
spreading  uplands  lying  between  the  Orange 
River  and  the  Limpopo,  west  of  Natal,  were  not 
exempt  from  the  tribulations  experienced  by 
their  brethren  who  had  turned  eastward  to  the 
coast.  Like  them  they  were  forced  to  wage  in- 
cessant war  with  the  natives ;  but  the  enemies 
they  had  to  encounter  were  less  formidable  than 
the  Zulus.  One  tribe,  however,  and  their  his- 
toric chief,  Moshesh,  were  foemen  worthy  of 
their  steel.  In  the  nineteenth  century  there 
were  three  men  of  the  Kaffir  race  who  were 
vastly  superior  to  any  of  their  own  people,  and 
measured  up  evenly  with  the  ablest  white  oppo- 
nents they  met  in  diplomacy  and  war.  These 
men  were  Tshaka  the  Zulu,  Khama  of  the  Bech- 
uanos,  and  Moshesh  the  Basuto.  It  was  the 
fortune  of  the  Orange  River  emigrants  to  meet 
this  Moshesh  and  the  Basutos  in  many  a  hard- 
fought  battle  for  the  possession  of  the  country. 


NORTH    OF    ORANGE    RIVER  99 

Moshesh  differed  from  other  Kaffir  leaders  in 
that  he  was  merciful  to  his  wounded  and  captive 
enemies  and  ruled  his  own  people  with  mildness 
and  equity.  As  early  as  1832  he  opened  the  way 
for,  and  even  invited,  missionaries  to  teach  the 
Basutos  a  better  way  of  life,  and  they  exerted  a 
powerful  formative  i^ifluence  on  the  Basuto  na- 
tion. The  missionaries  were  all  European — 
some  of  them  were  British — which  latter  fact  was 
made  apparent  in  the  result  of  their  work. 
When  the  unavoidable  conflict  between  the  Ba- 
sutos and  the  whites  came,  the  Basutos,  guided 
by  their  missionaries,  were  careful  to  avoid  any 
fatal  breach  with  the  British  government.  iSev- 
eral  times  Moshesh  engaged  in  war  with  the 
Orange  River  emigrants,  but  only  once  with  the 
English, 

In  1843  the  Africanders  of  this  region  were 
widely  scattered  over  a  vast  spread  of  country 
measuring  seven  hundred  miles  in  length  and 
three  hundred  in  width.  To  the  southeast  it  was 
bounded  by  the  Ouathlamba  mountains,  but  on 
the  north  and  west  there  were  no  natural  fea- 
tures to  delimitate  it  from  the  plain  which  ex- 
tends to  the  Zambesi  on  the  north  and  to  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  on  the  west.  Within  this  terri- 
tory the  Africander  population,  in  1843,  was  not 
much  more  than  15,000.     This  seems  a  small 


lOO  THE    AFRICANDERS 

number  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  pioneer  emi- 
grants of  1836  to  1838  had  been  largely  re-en- 
forced from  the  Cape  colony.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  their  life  was  precarious  in  the  ex- 
treme ;  many  had  died — some  from  disease,  some 
in  conflict  with  wild  beasts,  and  a  still  greater 
number  in  their  frequent  wars  with  the  natives^ 
The  white  population  was  further  recruited  be- 
tween 1843  and  1847  by  a  second  Africander  trek 
from  Natal — which  will  be  described  in  another 
chapter. 

So  small  a  body  of  people,  of  whom  not 
more  than  4,000  were  adult  males,  occupying  so 
vast  a  territory,  experienced  serious  difficulties  in 
establishing  an  efficient  government.  The  diffi- 
culties growing  out  of  that  cause  were  enhanced 
by  the  very  qualities  in  the  Africanders  which 
had  led  to  their  emigration  from  the  old  colony, 
and  which  had  made  them  successful  in  their 
wars  of  conquest  in  the  interior.  To  an  exces- 
sive degree  they  were  possessed  by  a  spirit  of 
individual  poise  and  independence.  They  de- 
sired isolation — even  from  one  another.  They 
chafed  and  grew  restive  under  control  of  any 
kind,  so  much  so  that  they  were  indisposed  to 
obey  even  the  authorities  created  by  themselves. 
For  warlike  expeditions,  which  yielded  them  a 
pleasant  excitement,  enlarged  their  territory  by 


NORTH    OF    ORANGE    RIVER  lOI 

conquest,  and  enriched  them  with  captured  cat- 
tle and  Other  spoil,  they  readily  united  under 
their  military  leaders  and  rendered  them  obedi- 
ence, but  any  other  form  of  control  they  found 
irksome.  This  predilection  towards  solitary  in- 
dependence was  constantly  strengthened  by  the 
circumstances  in  which  they  lived.  The  soil, 
being  dry  and  parched  in  most  places,  did  not 
invite  agriculture  to  any  considerable  extent. 
Most  of  the  people  turned  to  stock-farming,  and 
the  nomadic  life  it  necessitated  in  seeking  change 
of  pasture  for  the  flocks  and  herds  confirmed  the 
disposition  to  live  separate  from  other  people. 

Out  of  these  causes  grew  the  determination 
to  make  their  civil  government  absolutely  popu- 
lar, and  conditioned,  entirely,  on  the  will  of  the 
governed.  But  unity  of  some  kind  must  be  had, 
for  their  very  existence  depended  on  acting  to- 
gether against  the  natives,  and  against  the  re- 
peated claims  of  the  British  government  to  exer- 
cise sovereignty  over  the  region  they  occupied. 
The  first  steps  towards  instituting  civil  govern- 
ment were  taken  in  the  organizing  of  several 
small  republican  communities,  the  design  being 
that  each  should  manage  its  own  affairs  by  a 
general  meeting  of  all  the  citizens.  It  was  found, 
however,  as  the  population  spread  over  the  coun- 
try, that  such  independent  neighborhood  gov^ 


102  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ernments  failed  to  secure  the  necessary  unity  of 
the  whole  people  in  any  matter  requiring  the  ag- 
gregate strength  of  the  whole  people.  To  rem- 
edy this  element  of  weakness  and  danger,  the 
Africanders  instituted  a  kind  of  federal  bond  be- 
tween the  little  republican  communities,  in  an 
elective  assembly  called  the  Volksraad — a  Coun- 
cil of  the  People  composed  of  delegates  from  all 
the  sectional  governments.  This  federative  tie 
was  of  the  weakest — its  authority  resting  upon 
an  unwritten  understanding  and  common  con- 
sent rather  than  upon  formal  articles  of  confed- 
eration, and  its  meaning  being  always  subject  to 
such  interpretation  as  might  be  suggested  by  the 
error  or  the  passion  of  the  passing  moment. 

The  territory  beyond  the  Vaal  River,  to  the 
far  northeast  from  Cape  Colony,  was  left  undis- 
turbed by  the  British  government.  The  Afri- 
canders living  there  were  hundreds  of  miles  from 
the  nearest  British  outpost.  Their  wars  with  the 
natives  projected  no  disturbing  influence  upon 
the  tribes  with  whom  the  colonial  government 
was  in  touch  and  for  whose  peace  and  pros- 
perity it  felt  responsible.  Moreover,  the  British 
authorities  at  the  Cape  were  under  instructions 
from  the  Colonial  Ofifice  of  the  home  govern- 
ment to  rather  contract  than  expand  the  scope 
of  British  influence  in  South  Africa.     For  these 


NORTH    OF    ORANGE    RIVER  I03 

reasons  the  Cape  government  cared  nothing  for 
what  took  place  in  the  outlying  regions  beyond 
the  Vaal,  unless,  indeed,  it  was  some  event  cal- 
culated to  disturb  the  natives  dwelling  next  the 
colonial  borders. 

Altogether  different,  in  the  esteem  of  the 
Cape  authorities  and  of  the  Colonial  office,  were 
the  affairs  of  the  region  extending  southwest- 
ward  from  the  Vaal  River  to  the  borders  of  Cape 
Colony.  Within  that  territory  there  had  been  fre- 
quent dissensions  between  Africander  communi- 
ties. And  there  had  been  a  rapid  increase  of 
dangerous  elements  in  the  native  population. 
The  Basutos  had  grown  powerful.  Intermixed 
with  the  whites  were  the  Griquas,  a  half-breed 
hunting  people,  sprung  from  Africander  fathers 
and  Hottentot  mothers,  and  partially  civilized. 
The  possibility  of  serious  native  wars  growing 
out  of  quarrels  between  the  white  emigrants 
themselves  and  between  them  and  the  mixed 
colored  population  was  a  constant  distress  to 
both  colonial  governors  and  the  home  authori- 
ties. 

At  this  time  the  Cape  was  regarded  the  least 
prosperous  of  all  the  British  colonies,  and  there 
was  a  growing  indisposition  to  annex  any  more 
territory  in  South  Africa.  The  soil  was  mostly 
arid.     The  Africander  population  was  alien.  The 


104  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Kaffir  wars  threatened  to  be  endless  and  very 
costly  in  men  and  in  money.  This  reluctance  to 
enlarge  had  been  overcome  in  the  case  of  Natal ; 
but  Natal  was  the  garden  of  South  Africa  and 
the  possession  of  it  gave  the  British  command 
of  the  east  coast  almost  to  Delagoa  Bay.  But  to 
the  north  there  seemed  to  be  nothing  sufficiently 
inviting  to  justify  the  taking  up  of  new  responsi- 
bility and  expense. 

The  problem  of  how  to  safeguard  the  peace  of 
the  old  Cape  Colony  without  undertaking  the 
burdens  involved  in  governing  and  holding  the 
whole  Africander  territory  to  the  northeast,  in- 
cluding the  region  beyond  the  Vaal  River,  was 
thought  to  have  been  solved  by  Doctor  Philip, 
an  English  m.issionary,  who  had  some  influence 
with  the  government.  The  scheme  recom- 
mended by  Doctor  Philip  was  that  the  govern- 
ment should  create  a  line  of  native  states  under 
British  control  along  the  northeast  border  of 
Cape  Colony.  These  would  act,  he  claimed,  as  a 
barrier  to  break  the  influence  of  the  more  turbu- 
lent Africanders  in  the  regions  north  of  that  line 
on  those  of  their  blood  who  were  yet  citizens  of 
the  old  colony,  and  they  would,  in  like  manner, 
separate  between  the  native  tribes  in  the  colony 
and  those  in  the  interior. 

Doctor  Philip's  plan  was  adopted  with  much 


NORTH    OF    ORANGE    RIVER  IO5 

enthusiasm.  A  treaty  suitable  to  the  purpose 
contemplated  had  already  been  made  with  a 
northern  Griqua  leader  named  Waterboer.  In 
1843  two  other  treaties  were  made,  one  with 
Moshesh  of  the  Basutos  and  the  other  with 
Adam  Kok,  a  leader  of  the  Orange  River  Gri- 
quas.  It  was  fondly  believed  that  these  three 
states,  recognized  by  and  in  treaty  with  Great 
Britain,  would  isolate  the  colony  from  the  dis- 
turbing and  dangerous  people  to  the  north  of 
them. 

Doctor  Philip's  promising  arrangement  dis- 
appointed every  one.  The  Africanders  living  in 
the  territory  of  the  Griquas  refused  to  be  bound 
in  any  sense  by  a  treaty  made  by  the  despised 
half-breeds,  and  the  former  troubles  continued. 
A  further  effort  was  made  to  give  effect  to  the 
doctor's  statesmanship  by  establishing  a  military 
post  at  Bloemfontein,  about  half  way  between 
the  Orange  River  and  the  Vaal,  for  the  purpose 
of  enforcing  order  and  of  carrying  out  the  pro- 
visions of  the  treaty.  This  step  was  followed  up 
in  1848  by  the  formal  annexation  to  the  British 
dominions  in  South  Africa  of  the  entire  country 
lying  between  the  Orange  and  the  Vaal,  under 
the  name  of  the  Orange  River  Sovereignty.  The 
second  contact  of  Boer  and  Briton,  begun  in 


I06  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Natal  in  1842,  was  thus  extended  into  the  Or- 
ange River  territory. 

The  Africanders  rose  up  to  assert  their  inde- 
pendence, encouraged  and  re-enforced  by  their 
brethren  from  beyond  the  Vaal.  Under  the  able 
and  energetic  leadership  of  Mr.  Pretorius,  who 
had  opposed  the  British  in  Natal,  they  attacked 
Bloemfontein,  captured  the  garrison  posted  there 
and  advanced  to  the  south  as  far  as  Orange 
River. 

The  governor  of  Cape  Colony,  Sir  Harry 
Smith,  hastily  dispatched  a  sufficient  force,  which 
met  and  defeated  the  Africanders  at  Bloomplats, 
about  seventy-five  miles  north  of  the  Orange 
River,  on  the  29th  of  August,  1848.  The  sole 
result  of  this  battle  was  the  restoration  of  British 
authority  over  the  Orange  River  Sovereignty. 
The  territory  was  not  incorporated  with  that  of 
Cape  Colony,  neither  were  the  Africanders  dwell- 
ing north  of  the  Vaal  River  further  interfered 
with 

Tlic  old  conditions  of  unrest  continued. 
Fresh  quarrels  among  the  native  tribes  seemed  to 
call  for  British  interference,  and  led  them  into 
war  with  the  Basutos  under  Moshesh.  Out  of 
this  conflict  and  its  threatened  complications 
grew  a  deliberate  change  of  imperial  policy  in 


NORTH    OF    ORANGE    RIVER  lOJ 

South  Africa,  which  the   EngHsh    have    never 
ceased  to  regret. 

The  situation,  so  pregnant  with  far-reaching 
results,  may  be  stated  thus,  in  brief:  The  Brit- 
ish resident  at  Bloemfontein  had  no  force  at  his 
command  that  could  cope  with  the  Basutos 
under  the  masterly  leadership  of  Moshesh.  The 
Africanders  living  in  the  district  were  disaffected 
— even  hostile — to  the  British  government.  They 
therefore  refused  to  support  the  resident,  pre- 
ferring to  fight  only  their  own  battles  and  to 
make  their  own  terms  with  the  Basutos.  The 
situation  of  the  British  grew  still  more  critical 
when  Mr.  Pretorius — yet  a  leading  spirit  among 
the  Africanders  north  of  the  Vaal — threatened  to 
make  common  cause  with  the  Basutos.  As  for 
the  old  colony  at  the  Cape,  it  was  already  in- 
volved in  a  fierce  conflict  with  the  south  coast 
KafiEirs,  and  could  not  spare  a  man  to  aid  in 
quieting  the  northern  disturbances. 

At  this  juncture  of  circumstances  Mr.  Pre- 
torius made  overtures  to  the  colonial  authorities., 
intimating  that  he  and  the  northern  Africanders 
desired  to  make  some  permanent  pacific  arrange- 
ment with  Great  Britain.  The  British  autbori 
ties,  disavowing  all  right  to  control  the  territory 
north  of  the  Vaal,  but  still  claiming  the  allegi- 


I08  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ance  of  the  Aficanders  resident  therein,  appointed 
commissioners  to  negotiate  with  Mr.  Pretorius 
and  other  representatives  of  the  Transvaal  group 
of  emigrants.  Subsequently  the  home  authori- 
ties of  the  British  government  appointed  and  sent 
out  Sir  George  R.  Clark,  K.  C.  B.,  as  "Her 
Majesty's  Special  Commissioner  for  settling  the 
affairs  of  the  Orange  River  Sovereignty."  Hav- 
ing conferred  with  all  who  were  concerned  per- 
sonally in  the  afifairs  of  the  Sovereignty,  Sir 
George,  in  a  meeting  held  at  Sand  River  in  1852, 
concluded  a  convention  with  the  commandant 
and  delegates  of  the  Africanders  living  north  of 
the  Vaal. 

In  the  provisions  of  this  convention  the  Brit- 
ish government  expressly  "guaranteed  to  the 
emigrant-farmers  beyond  the  Vaal  River  the 
right  to  manage  their  own  afifairs  and  to  govern 
themselves  according  to  their  own  laws,  without 
any  interference  on  the  part  of  the  British  govern- 
ment," and  it  permitted  the  emigrants  to  pur- 
chase ammunition  in  the  British  colonies  in 
South  Africa.  It  also  disclaimed  "all  alliances 
with  any  of  the  colored  nations  north  of  the  Vaal 
River,"  and  stipulated  that  "no  slavery  is  or  shall 
be  permitted  or  practiced  by  the  farmers  north 
of  the  Vaal  River." 


NORTH    OF    ORANGE    RIVER  IO9 

The  Transvaal  Republic,  called,  later,  the 
South  African  Republic,  dates  its  independence 
from  this  convention,  concluded  at  Sand  River  in 
1852.  It  also,  by  the  same  instrument,  severed 
itself  and  its  interests  from  the  Africander  emi- 
grants living  in  the  Soveregnty  south  of  the  Vaal 
— an  act  which  their  southern  brethren  deemed 
little  short  of  a  betrayal. 

For  a  few  months  after  the  convention  of 
1852  the  Sovereignty  continued  British,  and 
might  have  done  so  for  many  years  but  for  a 
serious  defeat  of  the  British  arms  in  that  territory 
by  the  Basutos.  General  Cathcart,  who  had  just 
been  installed  as  governor  of  the  Cape,  rashly  at- 
tacked the  Basutos  with  a  strong  force  of  regu- 
lars, was  led  into  an  ambush  and  suffered  so 
great  a  disaster  that  further  hostile  operations 
were  impossible  without  a  new  and  larger  army. 
The  politic  Moshesh  saw  in  the  situation  an  op- 
portunity to  make  peace  with  the  English  on 
favorable  terms,  which  he  at  once  proceeded 
to  do. 

This  crushing  reverse  called  out  a  report  to 
the  British  ministers  relative  to  the  condition  of 
aflfairs  in  the  Sovereignty,  and  a  statement  of  the 
policy  he  favored  in  reference  to  that  part  of  her 
majesty's  dominions,  from  Sir  George  Clark,  the 


no  THE    AFRICANDERS 

special  commissioner  appointed  to  settle  the  af- 
fairs thereof.  The  closing  paragraphs  of  that 
report  read  as  follows  : 

"The  more  I  consider  the  position,  relative 
both  to  the  Cape  colony  and  its  (the  Sovereign- 
ty's) own  internal  circvimstances,  the  more  I  feel 
assured  of  its  inutility  as  an  acquisition,  and  am 
impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  vain  conceit  of  con- 
tinuing to  supply  it  with  civil  and  military  estab- 
lishments in  a  manner  becoming  the  character  of 
the  British  Government,  and  advantageous  to 
our  resources. 

"It  is  a  vast  territory,  possessing  nothing  that 
can  sanction  its  being  permanently  added  to  a 
frontier  already  inconveniently  extended.  It  se- 
cures no  genuine  interests  ;  it  is  recommended  by 
no  prudent  or  justifiable  motive ;  it  answers  no 
really  beneficial  purpose ;  it  imparts  no  strength 
to  the  British  Government,  no  credit  to  its  char- 
acter, no  lustre  to  the  crown.  To  remain  here, 
therefore,  to  superintend  or  to  countenance  this 
extension  of  British  dominion,  or  to  take  part  in 
any  administrative  measure  for  the  furtherance  of 
so  unessential  an  object,  would,  I  conceive,  be 
tantamount  to  my  ejicouraging  a  serious  evil,  and 
participating  in  one  of  the  most  signal  fallacies 
which  has  ever  come  under  my  notice  in  the 


NORTH    OF    ORANGE    RIVER  III 

course  of  nearly  thirty  years  devoted  to  the  pub- 
lic service." 

The  British  Government,  weary  of  the  per- 
petual native  wars,  disgusted  at  the  late  defeat  of 
the  British  regulars  by  Moshesh  and  his  Basutos, 
and  influenced  by  the  emphatic  and  very  signifi- 
cant report  of  their  special  commissioner,  which 
report  was  heartily  indorsed  by  Governor  Cath- 
cart,  decided  to  abandon  the  Orange  River  Sov- 
ereignty altogether.  An  act  of  parliament  in  ac- 
cordance with  that  decision  was  passed.  Later, 
when  there  were  vehement  protests  against  the 
abandonment — protests  from  the  missionaries 
who  feared  for  the  welfare  of  the  natives,  and 
from  English  settlers  in  the  Sovereignty  who  de- 
sired to  remain  subject  to  the  British  crown — a 
motion  was  made  in  the  House  of  Commons 
begging  the  Queen  to  reconsider  the  renuncia- 
tion of  her  sovereignty  over  the  Orange  River 
territory,  but  the  motion  found  no  support  at  all, 
and  had  to  be  withdrawn.  Instead,  parliament 
voted  £48,000  to  compensate  any  who  might  suf- 
fer loss  in  the  coming  change,  so  eager  were  the 
authorities  to  be  rid  of  this  large  territory  with 
its  constant  vexations  and  its  costliness.  And 
thus  it  was  that  independence  was  literally  forced 
upon  the  Orange  River  country. 


11^  THE   AFRICANDERS 

By  the  convention  of  the  23d  of  February, 
1854,  signed  at  Bloemfontein,  the  British  gov- 
ernment "guaranteed  the  future  independence  of 
the  country  and  its  government,"  and  covenanted 
that  they  should  be,  "to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
a  free  and  independent  people."  It  further  pro- 
vided that  the  Orange  River  government  was  to 
be  free  to  purchase  ammunition  in  the  British 
South  African  colonies,  and  that  liberal  privileges 
were  to  be  granted  it  in  connection  with  import 
duties.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Transvaal,  so  in 
this  convention  it  was  stipulated,  that  no  slavery 
or  trade  in  slaves  was  to  be  permitted  north  of 
the  Orange  River.  The  name  given  to  the  new 
nation  was  "The  Orange  River  Free  State." 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  these  conventions  of 
1852  and  1854  created  two  new  and  independent 
states.  Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  in  consenting 
to  their  creation  the  action  of  the  British  govern- 
ment was  taken  under  no  pressure  of  war,  under 
no  powerful  foreign  interference,  but  altogether 
of  its  own  free  will,  and  with  the  conviction  that 
in  cutting  loose  from  undesirable  and  disputed 
territory  it  was  acting  for  the  good  of  the  empire. 
Canon  Knox  Little,  in  his  "South  Africa," 
calls  this  action  of  the  British  government  "a 
serious  blunder."     Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Afri- 


Ill  i(    I  OR    JAMKSO.N. 


NORTH    OF   ORANGE   RIVER  TI3 

canders  acted  in  perfect  consistency  with  all  their 
former  aspirations  and  claims,  and  they  made  no 
blunders  in  the  negotiations  that  secured  to  them 
independent  national  existence.  The  British 
"blunder" — if  blunder  it  was — was  written  in  a 
formal  ofBcial  document,  and  subscribed  by  the 
authoried  representatives  of  the  government,  ap- 
pointed expressly  to  give  efifect  to  imperial  legis- 
lation, and  can  no  more  be  repudiated  righte- 
ously than  can  a  written  contract  between  private 
individuals. 


114  THE    AFRICANDERS 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  Africander's  second  trek  to  the  north. 

The  purview  intended  to  be  given  in  these 
pages  requires  that  we  now  look  back  to  Natal, 
and  to  the  condition  and  movements  of  the  Afri- 
canders living  in  that  region  after  it  became 
British  teritory.  As  has  been  stated  in  chapter 
v.,  the  English  took  forcible  possession  of  Natal 
in  1843.  Two  years  later  it  was  made  a  de- 
pendency of  the  older  colony  at  the  Cape ;  in  1856 
it  was  constituted  a  separate  colony,  and  so  re- 
mains to  this  day. 

A  small  minority  of  the  Africanders — about 
five  hundred  families — being  greatly  attached  to 
the  homes  they  had  founded  in  that  most  attrac- 
tive part  of  South  Africa,  reconciled  themselves 
to  the  British  administration  and  remained.  But 
the  majority,  including  all  the  fiercer  and  more 
restless  spirits,  took  their  families  and  goods, 
their  flocks  and  herds,  and  once  more  trekked  in 


SECOND    TREK  II5 

search  of  independence.  Their  course  lay  north- 
westward across  the  mountains  to  the  elevated 
plateaus  of  the  Orange  River  district  and  the 
Transvaal. 

Very  reluctantly  the  Africanders  abandoned 
sunny  and  fruitful  Natal,  and  the  one  hold  they 
had  ever  gained  of  a  part  of  the  coast.  But  a 
goodly  land  and  access  to  the  sea,  to  be  of  great 
value  in  their  esteem,  must  be  associated  with 
freedom  to  govern  themselves  and  to  deal  with 
the  native  population  as  an  inferior  and  servile 
race  not  entitled  to  civil  equality  with  the  whites. 

The  Africander  love  of  independence,  and 
their  reasonable  objection  to  be  civilly  on  a  level 
with  the  ignorant  and  savage  blacks,  command 
respect  and  admiration;  but  their  treatment  of 
the  natives,  where  unrestrained  by  British  rule, 
was  anything  but  creditable.  They  may  be  ex- 
cused for  many  wars  with  Bushmen  and  Kafhrs, 
for  their  very  lives  depended  on  either  reducing 
these  to  submission  or  driving  them  to  a  safe  dis- 
tance from  the  white  settlements.  But  the  en- 
slaving of  men  and  women,  and,  later,  of  chil- 
dren under  the  subterfuge  of  apprenticeship  for 
a  term  of  years,  cannot  be  justified ;  it  was  mon- 
strously incompatable  with  the  insistent  demand 
for  personal  freedom  for  themselves  so  conspicu- 


Il6  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ous  in  the  Africander  race.  The  one  extenuating 
circumstance  is  the  fact  that,  leading  an  isolated 
life,  they  were  slower  than  other  civilized  peoples 
in  catching  the  spirit  of  the  age — a  spirit  that 
makes  for  freedom,  and  a  growing  betterment 
in  the  condition  of  every  man. 

The  exodus  of  Natal  Africanders  between 
1843  and  1848  encouraged  an  immense  influx  of 
Kaffirs,  who  repopulated  the  country  so  plenti- 
fully that  the  proportion  of  blacks  to  whites  has 
been  as  ten  to  one  ever  since. 

The  emigrants  who  settled  north  of  the  Vaal, 
both  those  of  the  Great  Trek  and  those  from 
Natal  who  began  to  join  them  in  1843,  were  rude 
and  uneducated  as  compared  to  their  brethren  of 
the  Orange  River  region.  The  northern  group 
had  less  of  English  blood  in  their  veins,  and  be- 
cause of  distance  and  difficulty  of  communication 
they  were  not  at  all  affected  by  intercourse  with 
the  more  cultured  people  of  Cape  Colony. 

Lacking  the  upward  lead  that  contact  with  a 
progressive  civilization  would  have  given,  there 
took  place  a  marked  degeneration  of  character  in 
these  more  northern  emigrants.  Their  love  of 
independence  was  developed  into  a  spirit  of  fac- 
tion and  dissension  among  themselves.  Their 
lionlike  bravery  was  perverted  into  a  too  great 


SECOND   TREK  II7 

readiness  to  fight  on  the  smallest  provocation, 
and  a  disposition  to  prey  upon  their  weaker 
native  neighbors.  Through  a  desire  to  enlarge 
their  grazing  lands  they  became  greedy  as  to  ter- 
ritory, and  were  almost  constantly  engaged  in 
bloody  strife  with  the  native  occupants  of  the 
regions  they  insisted  on  annexing. 

The  almost  patriarchal  mode  of  life  they  fol- 
lowed had  the  effect  of  segregating  them  into 
family  groups  widely  separated  from  one  an- 
other, largely  exempted  from  any  control  of 
magistrates  and  law  courts,  and  susceptible  to 
family  feuds  and  bitter  personal  rivalries  between 
faction  leaders.  This  absence  of  efficient  control 
was  a  cause  of  further  evil  in  encouraging  an 
influx  of  unprincipled  adventurers  from  other 
parts  of  South  Africa.  These  went  about  through 
the  more  unsettled  parts  and  along  the  border, 
cheating  and  often  violently  illtreating  the  natives 
to  the  great  peril  of  peace  both  in  the  Transvaal 
and  in  the  contiguous  British  provinces.  As  an 
example  of  the  turmoil  in  which  the  people  lived 
and  participated,  the  following  account  is  intro- 
duced of  an  Africander  expedition  under  Acting 
Commandant-General  Scholtz  against  Secheli, 
chief  of  the  Baquaines,  a  tribe  of  Zulus.  It  also 
covers  the  incident  of  the  plundering  of  Doctor 


Il8  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Livingstone's  house  by  the  force  under  General 
Scholtz. 

The  matter  of  complaint  was  that  the  Ba- 
quaines  had  been  constantly  disturbing  the  coun- 
try by  thefts  and  threatenings,  and  that  they  were 
sheltering  a  turbulent  chief  named  Mosolele.  In 
order  to  punish  and  reduce  them  to  obedience  a 
commando  was  sent  against  them.  After  some 
petty  encounters  with  scouts  the  Africander  force 
drew  near  to  Secheli's  town,  in  the  direction  of 
the  Great  Lake,  on  the  25th  of  August,  1852. 
Two  days'  further  march  brought  them  so  near 
that  the  Africander  scouts  discovered  and  re- 
ported that  Secheli  was  making  every  preparation 
for  defense. 

On  the  28th  Scholtz  marched  close  by  the 
town  where  Secheli  was  fortified,  and  camped  be- 
side the  town-water,  a  little  distance  from  the 
intrenchments.  It  being  Saturday  Scholtz  re- 
solved to  do  nothing  to  provoke  a  battle  before 
Monday,  being  desirous  of  keeping  the  Lord's 
Day  in  quiet.  He  did,  however,  dispatch  a  letter 
to  Secheli  demanding  the  surrender  of  Mosolele, 
in  the  following  terms  : 

"Friend  Secheli :  As  an  upright  friend,  I 
would  advise  you  not  to  allow  yourself  to  be 
misled  by  Mosolele,  who  has  fled  to  you  because 


SECOND    TREK  II9 

he  has  done  wrong.  Rather  give  him  back  to 
me,  that  he  may  answer  for  his  offense.  I  am 
also  prepared  to  enter  into  the  best  arrangements 
with  you.  Come  over  to  me,  and  we  shall  ar- 
range everything  for  the  best,  even  were  it  this 
evening.     Your  friend, 

"P.  E.  SCHOLTZ,  Act.  Com.-Gen." 

To  this  Secheli  replied : 

"Wait  till  Monday.  I  shall  not  deliver  up 
Mosolele.  *  *  *  But  I  challenge  you  on 
Monday  to  show  which  is  the  strongest  man.  1 
am,  like  yourself,  provided  with  arms  and  ammu- 
nition, and  have  more  fighting  people  than  you. 
I  should  not  have  allowed  you  thus  to  come  in, 
and  would  assuredly  have  fired  upon  you ;  but  1 
have  looked  in  the  book,  upon  which  I  re- 
served my  fire.  I  am  myself  provided  with  can- 
non. Keep  yourself  quiet  to-morrow,  and  do 
not  quarrel  for  water  till  Monday ;  then  we  shall 
see  who  is  the  strongest  man.  You  are  already 
in  my  pot ;  I  shall  only  have  to  put  the  lid  on  it 
on  Monday. 

On  Sunday  Secheli  sent  two  men  to  the  camp 
to  borrow  some  sugar — which  Scholtz  regarded 
as  bravado.  The  messengers  also  brought  word 
from  Secheli  directing  Scholtz  to  take  good  care 
that  the  oxen  did  not  pasture  on  the  poisonous 


120  THE    AFRICANDERS 

grass  in  the  neighborhood  of  his  camp,  for  he 
now  looked  upon  them  as  his  own. 

On  Monday  Scholtz  sent  messengers  to 
SecheH  to  ascertain  his  intentions  and  to  renew 
the  offers  of  peace.  The  Zulu  chieftain  replied 
that  he  required  no  peace,  that  he  now  chal- 
lenged Scholtz  to  fight,  and  added,  "If  you  have 
not  sufficient  ammunition,  I  will  lend  you  some." 

After  some  further  exchanges  of  diplomatic 
courtesies  between  the  African  and  the  Afri- 
cander the  battle  began.  By  six  hours  of  hard 
fighting  Scholtz  carried  all  the  native  intrench- 
ments,  killed  a  large  number  of  the  warriors,  and 
captured  many  guns  and  prisoners.  The  Zulus 
still  held  one  fortified  ridge  of  rocks  when  night- 
fall put  an  end  to  the  battle.  In  the  morning  it 
was  found  that  Secheli  had  retreated  from  his 
stronghold  under  cover  of  night.  Scholtz  sent 
out  a  force  in  pursuit,  who  inflicted  further  pun- 
ishment on  the  fugitives  and  returned  the  next 
day  without  loss  of  a  man. 

General  Scholtz's  official  report  of  this  expe- 
dition contains  the  following  remarkable  state- 
ment regarding  the  looting  of  Doctor  Living- 
stone's house : 

"On  the  1st  of  September  I  dispatched  Com- 
mandant P.  Schutte  with  a  patrol  to  Secheli's 


SECOND   TREK  121 

old  town ;  but  he  found  it  evacuated,  and  the  mis- 
sionary residence  broken  open  by  the  Kaffirs. 
The  commandant  found,  however,  two  percus- 
sion rifles ;  and  the  Kaffir  prisoners  declared  that 
Livingstone's  house,  which  was  still  locked,  con- 
tained ammunition,  and  that  shortly  before  he 
had  exchanged  thirteen  guns  with  Secheli,  which 
I  had  also  learnt  two  weeks  previously,  the  mis- 
sionaries Inglis  and  Edwards  having  related  it  to 
the  burghers,  A.  Bytel  and  J.  Synman ;  and  that 
Livingstone's  house  had  been  broken  open  by 
Secheli  to  get  powder  and  lead.  I  therefore  re- 
solved to  open  the  house  that  was  still  locked,  in 
which  we  found  several  half-finished  guns  and  a 
gunmaker's  shop  with  abundance  of  tools.  We 
here  found  more  guns  and  tools  than  Bibles,  so 
that  the  place  had  more  the  appearance  of  a  gun- 
maker's  shop  than  a  mission-station,  and  more  of 
a  smuggling-shop  than  a  school  place." 

Doctor  Livingstone's  character  is  too  well 
known  in  all  the  civilized  world  to  need  even  a 
word  of  vindication.  General  Scholtz,  being 
taken  as  sincere  in  his  statements,  fell  into  an 
egregious  and  well-nigh  inexcusable  error  con- 
cerning the  tools  found  in  the  doctor's  house  and 
the  guns  in  various  stages  of  completeness.  In 
those  parts,  so  distant  from  carpenters,  wagon- 


122  THE    AFRICANDERS 

makers  and  smiths,  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  explorer  to  have  with  him  all  tools  re- 
quired in  making  or  repairing  wagons,  harness, 
guns,  and  whatever  else  belonged  to  his  outfit. 
It  is  impossible  to  account  for  General  Scholtz's 
statements  concerning  the  altogether  blameless 
Doctor  Livingstone  in  any  other  way  than  to 
ascribe  them  to  prejudice.  It  is  well  known  that 
there  was  in  the  Africander  mind  a  deep-rooted 
hostility  against  the  missionaries,  of  whom  David 
Livingstone  was  chief,  because  they  denounced 
the  practice  of  slavery  and  reported  the  cruelties 
incident  to  it.  Had  General  Scholtz  been  en- 
tirely free  from  the  prejudice  due  to  this  cause  he 
would  have  seen  on  Doctor  Livingstone's  prem- 
ises not  an  illicit  gun  factory,  but  an  honest  re- 
pair shop  such  as  any  pioneer  in  those  parts  must 
have. 


SLAVERY  123 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  INDEPENDENT  AFRICANDER   AND  SLAVERY. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  conventions  of 
1852  and  1854,  by  which  the  absolute  independ- 
ence of  the  Africanders  living  beyond  the  Vaal 
River  and  of  those  resident  in  the  Orange  River 
district  was  guaranteed,  bound  them  to  renounce 
the  practice  of  slavery.  They  did  not  find  it 
easy,  however,  to  keep  either  the  letter  or  the 
spirit  of  that  covenant.  For  generations  both 
the  men  and  the  women  had  been  accustomed  to 
immunity  from  the  more  severe  and  disagreeable 
work  of  life.  Twice  had  they  trekked,  largely  to 
get  away  from  British  power  because  it  would 
no  longer  tolerate  slavery  on  British  soil.  But 
now  they  had  accepted  independent  national  life, 
and  were  in  honor  bound  to  carry  out  the  stipula- 
tion of  the  treaties  which  guaranteed  their  inde- 
pendence, by  liberating  such  slaves  as  they  pos- 
sessed and  by  acquiring  no  more.  It  is  next  in 
order,  therefore,  to  consider  the  manner  in  which 
these  obligations  were  carried  out. 


124  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Whatever  outward  appearances  there  may 
have  been  of  ceasing  to  enforce  servitude  from 
the  blacks,  there  is  indubitable  evidence  that  little 
more  than  a  change  of  name  for  it  was  effected — 
the  thing  went  on.  A  new  system  of  virtual 
slavery  was  invented  and  prevailed  extensively 
under  the  plausible  name  of  "apprenticeship," 
and  "registration"  of  prisoners  taken  in  war  with 
the  natives ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  many 
predatory  expeditions  were  undertaken  chiefly  to 
secure  fresh  victims  for  this  new  method  of  en- 
forcing unpaid  service — all  of  which  was  in  fla- 
grant violation  of  the  treaties  by  which  the  re- 
publics were  established  and  guaranteed  inde- 
pendence. 

The  new  system  was  defended  by  those  who 
devised  it  and  profited  by  it,  as  a  benevolent  in- 
stitution, because  it  took  the  orphan  children  of 
the  Kafirs — for  whom  their  own  people  made  no 
provision — and  apprenticed  them  to  Africander 
masters  for  a  limited  period,  to  terminate  in  every 
case  at  twenty-one  years  of  age.  But  when  it  is 
understood  that  in  many  cases  the  Kaffir  bond- 
children  had  been  made  orphans  by  Africander 
bullets  the  benevolence  of  the  institution  becomes 
a  vanishing  quantity.  And  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered, in  judging  of  this  matter,  that  these  igno- 


SLAVERY  125 

rant  Kaffir  apprentices  had  no  means  of  knowing 
their  own  age,  nor  was  there  any  one  to  speak 
and  act  for  them  when  the  proper  time  for  their 
release  from  bondage  came.  The  new  system 
was  slavery  under  a  less  repulsive  name,  and  was 
so  regarded  by  its  victims. 

It  is  only  fair  to  the  Africanders  to  trace  their 
conduct  in  this  matter  back  to  the  convictions 
and  principles  honestly  held  by  them,  and  by 
which  they  justified  to  themselves  their  practices 
toward  the  natives.  Almost  without  exception 
they  were  men  of  intense  religiousness  and  de- 
vout regard  for  the  Bible.  It  was  a  great  misfor- 
tune to  themselves  and  to  the  natives  of  South 
Africa  they  had  found  their  standard  of  ethics, 
not  in  any  of  the  moral  precepts  of  the  New 
Testament  or  the  Old,  but  in  their  own  deduc- 
tions from  scraps  of  Old  Testament  history  which 
were  never  intended  to  furnish  ideals  and  stand- 
ards of  virtue  and  righteousness  for  later  genera- 
tions. Thus,  they  looked  upon  the  dark  races 
about  them  as  the  yet  "accursed"  sons  of  Canaan 
the  son  of  Ham,  doomed  by  heaven  to  perpetual 
servitude  to  any  people  who  might  care  to  en- 
slave them,  because  of  the  sin  of  their  forefather, 
Ham.  They  seem  to  have  forgotten,  too  easily, 
that  the  divine  entail  of  evil  consequences  to  fol- 


126  THE    AFRICANDERS 

low  certain  sins  was  limited  to  "the  third  and 
fourth  generation,"  and  insisted  without  warrant 
of  any  kind  on  bringing  it  over  to  and  enforcing 
it  upon  the  one  hundred  and  thirtieth  genera- 
tion. Holding  such  views,  they  considered 
themselves  as  doing  service  to  God  when  they 
inflicted  the  degradations,  hardships  and  cruel- 
ties of  slavery  upon  the  offspring  of  Ham.  It 
was  their  custom  to  meet  for  prayer  before  going 
on  one  of  their  forays,  to  implore  the  help  and 
protection  of  the  Almighty  in  what  they  were 
about  to  do ;  then  they  went  forth  heartened  and 
emboldened  by  the  conviction  that  the  coming 
battle  was  the  Lords,  and  to  fall  therein  would  be 
a  sure  passport  to  heaven.  It  would  be  untrue 
to  say  that  all  the  Africanders  were  of  this  belief 
and  practice,  but  undoubtedly  the  majority  of 
them  so  believed  and  so  acted. 

Many  of  the  whites  quarreled  with  their  min- 
isters because  they  persisted  in  teaching  Chris- 
tianity to  the  people  held  to  be  accursed — by 
their  masters.  The  Dutch  term  Zendeling,  orig- 
inally signifying  "missionary,"  was  turned  into 
an  epithet  of  reproach,  bearing  the  new  interpre- 
tation of  a  petty  artisan  and  pedlar,  who,  under 
pretense    of    instructing  the  natives,  wandered 


SLAVERY  127 

about  prosecuting  a  secular  business  for  gain — a 
man  to  be  despised  and  shunned. 

Instances  are  not  wanting  in  the  records  of 
this  period  to  show  that  the  spirit  and  practice  of 
some  Africanders  were  as  set  forth  above.  Mr. 
Holden,  in  the  appendix  to  his  "History  of 
Natal,"  quotes  from  a  friend  of  the  enslaved 
blacks  as  follows : 

"As  to  slavery,  in  spite  of  the  treaty  with  the 
Assistant  Commissioner,  two  Kaffir  boys  have 
this  very  week  been  sold  here — the  one  for  a 
hundred  rix-dollars  to  a  Boer,  and  the  other 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  rix-dollars  to  a  dealer  at 
Rustenburg.  Last  month,  also,  two  were  sold 
to  Messrs.  S.  and  G.  Maritz,  traders  of  Natal,  and 
were  immediately  'booked'  (ingeboekt)  with  the 
Landdrost  of  Potchesetroom  for  twenty-five 
years  each  !  Is  this  according  to  treaty  ?  If  not, 
why  does  not  Governor  Cathcart  interfere  by 
force,  if  reasoning  be  unavailing?  For,  without 
some  force,  I  see  little  prospect  of  the  natives 
being  saved  from  utter  and  universal  slavery." 

Mr.  Holden  also  quotes  from  the  "Grahams- 
town  Journal"  of  September  24,  1853,  the  follow- 
ing significant  incident : 

"We  are  crediby  informed  that,  in  a  private 
interview  with  Sir  G.  R.  Clark,  one  of  the  most 


128  THE    AFRICANDERS 

respectable  and  loyal  Boers,  resident  on  a  confis- 
cated farm  in  the  most  disaffected  district,  'inter 
alias  res,'  plainly  told  Sir  George  that  he  had 
some  twenty  or  thirty  Bushman  children  on  his 
place ;  and  that  if  government  withdrew  he  must 
sell  them,  as,  if  he  did  not  do  so,  other  persons 
would  come  and  take  them,  and  sell  them.  The 
reply,  as  stated  to  us,  was  to  the  effect,  'You  have 
been  too  long  a  good  subject  to  lead  me  to  think 
you  would  do  such  a  thing  now.'  To  this  the 
answer  was,  T  have  been  a  good  subject ;  but  if 
government  will  make  me  a  rascal,  I  cannot 
help  it'  " 

These  testimonies  coming  from  separate  and 
widely  distant  sources,  and  giving  the  particulars 
of  direct  and  positive  slavery  practiced  under  an- 
other name,  leave  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the 
spirit  of  the  compact  between  the  British  govern- 
ment and  the  Africanders  was  being  violated. 

It  has  been  thought  that  the  account  of  the 
same  matter  given  by  Mr.  Theal,  in  his  "South 
Africa,"  puts  an  entirely  different  aspect  on  the 
practice  of  "apprenticeship." 

"At  this  time,"  he  writes  (1857),  "complaints 
were  beginning  to  be  heard  that  the  practice  of 
transferring  apprentices,  or  selling  indentur'es, 
was  becoming  frequent.     It  was  rumored  also 


SLAVERY  129 

that  several  lawless  individuals  were  engaged  in 
obtaining  black  children  from  neighboring  tribes, 
and  disposing  of  them  under  the  name  of  appren- 
tices. How  many  such  cases  occurred  cannot  be 
stated  with  any  pretension  to  accuracy,  but  the 
number  was  not  great.  The  condition  of  the 
country  made.it  almost  impossible  to  detain  any 
one  capable  of  performing  service  longer  than  he 
chose  to  remain  with  a  white  master,  so  that  even 
if  the  farmers  in  general  had  been  inclined  to  be- 
come slaveholders,  they  could  not  carry  such  in- 
clinations into  practice.  The  acts  of  a  few  of  the 
most  unruly  individuals  in  the  country  might, 
however,  endanger  the  peace  and  even  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  republic.  The  presidnt,  there- 
fore, on  the  29th  of  September,  1857,  issued  a 
proclamation  pointing  out  that  the  sale  or  barter 
of  black  children  was  forbidden  by  the  recently 
adopted  constitution,  and  prohibiting  transfers  of 
apprenticeships,  except  when  made  before  land- 
drosts." 

Treating  of  a  later  period  (1864-65),  he  re- 
turns to  this  matter,  saying : 

"A  subject  that  was  much  discussed  in  Eu- 
rope, as  well  as  in  South  Africa,  during  this 
period  was  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  repub- 
lic.    Charges  against  the  burghers  of  reducing 


f 

130  THE    AFRICANDERS 

weak  and  helpless  blacks  to  a  condition  of  servi- 
tude were  numerous  and  boldly  stated  on  one 
side,  and  were  indignantly  denied  on  the  other. 
That  the  laws  were  clearly  against  slavery  goes 
for  nothing,  because  in  a  time  of  anarchy  law  is  a 
dead  letter.  There  is  overwhelming  evidence 
that  blacks  were  transferred  openly  from  one  in- 
dividual to  another,  and  there  are  the  strongest 
assertions  from  men  of  undoubted  integrity  that 
there  was  no  slavery.  To  people  in  Europe  it 
seemed  impossible  that  both  should  be  true,  and 
the  opinion  was  generally  held  that  the  farmers 
of  the  interior  of  South  Africa  were  certainly 
slave-holders. 

"Since  1877  much  concerning  this  matter  that 
was  previously  doubtful  has  been  set  at  rest.  On 
the  1 2th  of  April  of  that  year  the  South  African 
republic  was  proclaimed  British  territory,  and 
when,  soon  afterward,  investigation  was  made, 
not  a  single  slave  was  set  free,  because  there  was 
not  one  in  the  country.  In  the  very  heart  of  the 
territory  kraals  of  blacks  were  found  in  as  pros- 
perous a  condition  as  in  any  part  of  South  Africa. 
It  was  ascertained  that  these  blacks  had  always 
lived  in  peace  with  the  white  inhabitants,  and 
that  they  had  no  complaints  to  make.  Quite  as 
strong  was  the  evidence  afiforded  by  the  number 


SLAVERY  131 

of  the  Bantu.  In  1877  there  were,  at  the  lowest 
estimate,  six  times  as  many  black  people  living 
in  a  state  of  semi-independence  within  the  bor- 
ders of  the  South  African  Republic  as  there  had 
been  on  the  same  ground  forty  years  before. 
Surely  these  people  would  not  have  moved  in  if 
the  character  of  the  burghers  was  such  as  most 
Englishmen  believed  it  to  be.  A  statement  of 
actual  facts  is  thus  much  more  likely  now  to  gain 
credence  abroad  than  would  have  been  the  case 
in  1864. 

"The  individuals  who  were  termed  slaves  by 
the  missionary  party  were  termed  apprentices  by 
the  farmers.  The  great  majority — probably 
nineteen  out  of  every  twenty — were  children  who 
had  been  made  prisoners  in  the  wars  which  the 
tribes  were  continually  waging  with  each  other. 
In  olden  days  it  had  been  the  custom  for  the  con- 
quering tribe  to  put  all  the  conquered  to  death, 
except  the  girls  and  a  few  boys  who  could  be 
made  useful  as  carriers.  More  recently  they  had 
become  less  inhuman,  from  having  found  out 
that  for  smaller  children  they  could  obtain  beads 
and  other  merchandise. 

"With  a  number  of  tribes  bordering  on  the 
republic  ready  to  sell  their  captives,  with  the 
Betshuana  everywhere  prepared  to  dispose  of  the 


132  THE    AFRICANDERS 

children  of  their  hereditary  slaves,  a  few  adven- 
turous Europeans  were  found  willing  to  embark 
in  the  odious  traffic.  Wagon  loads  of  children 
were  brought  into  the  republic,  where  they  were 
apprenticed  for  a  term  of  years  to  the  first  holder, 
and  the  deeds  of  apprenticeship  could  afterward 
be  transferred  before  a  landdrost.  This  was  the 
slavery  of  the  South  African  Republic.  Its 
equivalent  was  to  be  found  a  few  years  earlier  in 
the  Cape  colony,  when  negroes  taken  in  slave- 
ships  were  apprenticed  to  individuals.  There 
would  have  been  danger  in  the  system  if  the  de- 
mand for  apprentices  had  been  greater.  In  that 
case  the  tribes  might  have  attacked  each  other 
purposely  to  obtain  captives  for  sale.  But  the 
demand  was  very  limited,  for  the  service  of  a  raw 
black  apprentice  was  of  no  great  value.  A  herd 
boy  might  be  worth  something  more  than  his 
food,  clothing,  and  a  few  head  of  cattle  which 
were  given  him  when  his  apprenticeship  expired ; 
but  no  other  class  of  raw  native  was. 

"It  is  an  open  question  whether  it  was  better 
that  these  children  should  remain  with  the  de- 
stroyers of  their  parents,  and  according  to  chance 
grow  up  either  as  slaves  or  as  adopted  members 
of  the  conquering  tribe ;  or  that  they  should  serve 
ten  or  fifteen  years  as  apprentices  to  white  people, 


SLAVERY  i  33 

acquire  some  of  the  habits  of  European  life,  and 
then  settle  down  as  freemen  with  a  little  property. 
It  was  answered  in  1864,  and  will  be  answered  to- 
day according  to  the  bias  of  the  individual." 

After  all,  Mr.  Theal's  account  of  it  does  not 
materially  change  the  aspect  of  the  system  of 
enforced  servitude  that  prevailed  in  the  Afri- 
cander communities  after  they  became  independ- 
ent. These  bond-children  were  either  captured 
or  bought  from  dealers  in  children;  they  were 
held  under  bill  of  sale  and  indenture ;  and  they 
were  sold  from  master  to  master  by  legal  transfer 
of  indenture  before  a  magistrate. 

Mr.  Theal's  low  estimate  of  the  value  of  the 
services  that  could  be  rendered  by  raw  black  chil- 
dren, and  of  the  limited  demand  for  them,  is  not 
in  harmony  with  his  own  statement  that  such 
children  were  brought  into  the  republic  in  wagon 
loads,  nor  with  the  testimony,  quoted  by  Mr. 
Holden,  covering  two  specific  cases  wherein  one 
Kafifir  boy  was  sold  for  one  hundred,  and  another 
for  one  hundred  and  fifty  rix-dollars.  And  his 
averment  that  in  1877  the  British  authorities 
could  not  find  a  single  slave  to  liberate  in  all  the 
territory  of  the  South  African  Republic  is  simply 
amusing  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  what  he 
states  on  the  next  page — that  this  system  of  en- 


134  THE    AFRICANDERS 

forced  servitude  under  indentures  that  were  le- 
gally merchantable  "was  the  slavery  of  the  South 
African  Republic."  Undoubtedly ;  and,  so  far  as 
is  known,  no  other  form  of  slavery  was  ever  seri- 
ously charged  against  the  Africanders  after  their 
independence  was  established.  It  is  matter  of 
surprise,  however,  that  the  British  conscience  of 
this  period  was  not  able  to  scent  the  malodor  of 
slavery  under  the  new  form  and  title  of  "appren- 
ticeship" which  covered  a  marketable  property- 
right  in  the  human  chattel. 


IN    THE   FREE   STATE  1 35 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THIED  CONTACT  OF  AFEICANDER  AND  BRITON — IN 
THE  ORANGE  FREE  STATE. 

The  "Great  Trek"  of  1836  and  1838  removed 
from  the  old  colony  at  the  Cape  an  element  in 
the  population  which,  however  worthy  in  some 
regards,  was  unrestful  and  disaffected,  leaving 
abundant  room  for  a  new  immigration  from 
Europe.  It  was  some  years,  however,  before 
there  was  any  considerable  influx  from  conti- 
nental Europe.  Judged  by  the  grim  rumors  that 
were  afloat  everywhere.  South  Africa  was  a  dan- 
gerous country  to  live  in  because  of  the  warlike 
and  merciless  Kaffirs ;  and  the  trend  of  British 
emigration  was  yet  towards  America. 

About  1845  the  tide  of  fortune-seeking  peo- 
ple was  turned  towards  Cape  Colony.  The  Brit- 
ish government  of  this  time  stimulated  immigra- 
tion to  that  field  so  liberally  that  in  five  years  be- 
tween four  and  five  thousand  loyal  subjects  from 
the  mother  country  removed  to  the  Cape.     Later, 


136  THE    AFRICANDERS 

a  considerable  number  of  disbanded  German  sol- 
diers who  had  served  under  the  British  colors  in 
the  Crimean  war  were  sent  there  as  citizens,  and  in 
1858  over  two  thousand  German  civilians  of  the 
peasant  order  were  settled  along  the  south  coast 
on  lands  once  occupied  by  the  Kaffirs. 

Industries  natural  to  the  climate  and  soil  were 
slowly  but  steadily  developed.  Sheep  and  cat- 
tle raising,  and  agriculture  to  a  limited  extent, 
became  sources  of  wealth,  and  correspondingly 
expanded  the  export  trade.  Public  finances 
were  gradually  restored  to  a  healthy  state, 
churches  and  schools  sprang  up,  and  there  was 
no  serious  drawback  to  the  progress  of  the  col- 
ony but  the  frequent  Kaffir  invasions  across  the 
eastern  border.  These  cost  much  loss  of  life  and 
property  to  the  raided  settlements,  but  the  ex- 
pense of  the  resulting  wars  was  borne  by  the 
home  government.  Under  British  rule  the  pop- 
ulation had  increased  from  26,000  Europeans  in 
1806  to  182,000  in  1865. 

With  the  growth  of  population  there  came 
changes  in  the  form  of  government.  The  earlier 
governors  exercised  almost  autocratic  power, 
fearing  nothing  but  a  possible  appeal  against 
their  acts  to  the  Colonial  Office  in  London.  It 
should  be  stated,  however,    that    the    colonists 


GENERAL   JOIBERT. 


IN    THE    FREE    STATE  1 37 

found  as  frequent  cause  to  complain  of  the  home 
government  as  of  their  governors.  The  occa- 
sional irritation  which  broke  out  into  open  protest 
was  caused,  for  the  most  part,  by  difficuhies  with 
the  natives.  The  Europeans,  dwelHng  among  an 
inferior  race,  naturally  looked  upon  the  natives 
as  existing  for  their  benefit,  and  bitterly  resented 
the  disposition  of  both  the  imperial  authorities 
and  the  governors  to  give  equal  civil  rights  and 
protection  to  the  blacks.  The  missionaries  were 
the  special  objects  of  this  resentment,  because 
they  held  themselves  bound  by  their  sacred  office 
to  denounce  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  the  Kaffirs, 
and  to  even  defend  their  conduct  in  rebelling 
against  oppression. 

These  unfortunate  dissensions  had  the  effect 
of  uniting  the  English  and  the  Dutch  colonists 
in  questions  of  policy  and  government  regarding 
the  natives.  After  various  attempts  to  satisfy 
the  people  with  a  governor  appointed  by  the 
crown  and  a  Legislative  Council  constituted  by  the 
governor's  nomination  and  imperial  appointment, 
the  home  authorities,  in  1854,  yielded  to  the  pub- 
lic demand  for  representative  institutions. 

A  legislature,  consisting  of  a  Legislative 
Council  and  a  House  of  Assembly,  was  estab- 
lished, both  to  be  elected  on  a  franchise  wide 


138  ..      THE    AFRICANDERS 

enough  to  include  people  of  any  race  or  color 
holding  the  reasonable  property  qualification. 
The  sole  check  upon  the  colonial  legislature  re- 
tained by  the  imperial  government  was  the  right 
of  the  British  crown  to  disallow  any  of  its  acts 
considered  objectionable,  on  constitutional  or 
other  grounds,  by  her  Majesty's  ministers.  The 
executive  power  remained,  for  a  time,  with  the 
governor  and  his  council,  who  were  appointed  by 
the  crown  and  in  no  way  responsible  to  the  colo- 
nial houses.  Later,  the  executive  power  was 
taken  from  the  governors  and  vested  in  a  cabinet 
of  ministers  responsible  to  the  colonial  legislature 
and  holding  office  during  its  pleasure. 

The  range  of  industries  followed  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Cape  Colony  was  not  enlarged  until  the 
discovery  of  diamonds  in  1869.  This  brought  in 
a  sudden  rush  of  population  from  Europe  and 
America  and  so  inflated  trade  that  the  colonial 
revenue  was  more  than  doubled  in  the  next  five 
years.  Then  began  that  unparalleled  develop- 
ment of  mineral  resources  in  South  Africa  which 
created  immense  wealth  and  furnished  the  ele- 
ments of  a  political  situation  whose  outcome  the 
wisest  cannot  foresee. 

With  this  general  view  of  the  condition  of 
Cape  Colony  in  the  three  decades  succeeding  the 


IN    THE    FREE    STATE  I39 

Great  Trek  of  the  Africanders,  we  turn  again  to 
the  special  study  proposed  and  consider  the  chain 
of  events  that  led  up  to  the  third  unfriendly  con- 
tact between  Boer  and  Briton — this  time  begin- 
ning in  the  Orange  Free  State. 

By  the  conventions  of  1852  and  1854  Great 
Britain  formally  relinquished  all  claim  to  that 
part  of  the  interior  of  South  Africa  lying  to  the 
north  of  Cape  Colony,  and  recognized  the  re- 
publics of  the  Orange  Free  State  and  the  Trans- 
vaal. There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  sincerity  of 
the  British  government  in  taking  this  action. 
The  prevailing  desires  actuating  both  the  parlia- 
ment and  the  executive  were  to  be  rid  of  the 
responsibility  and  expense  of  governing  these 
regions,  and  to  leave  the  two  new  Africander 
republics  to  work  out  their  own  destiny  in  their 
own  way. 

For  a  few  years  the  relations  of  the  Cape  gov- 
ernment and  its  northern  neighbors  were  friend- 
ly. The  first  occurrence  that  disturbed  the  wel- 
come peace  and  harmony  was  a  serious  war 
which  broke  out  in  1858  between  the  Basutos 
under  Moshesh  and  the  Orange  Free  State. 
The  Basutos  laid  claim  to  certain  farms,  held 
under  English  titles,  in  Harrismith,  Wynburg 
and  Smithfield  districts.    These  were  taken  pos- 


I40  THE   AFRICANDERS 

session  of  by  the  petty  Basuto  captains,  and  when 
attempts  were  made  to  eject  the  intruders, 
Moshesh,  the  paramount  chief,  and  his  eldest  son 
Letsie,  assumed  the  right  to  interfere.  This  epi- 
sode, together  with  other  unfriendly  acts  on  the 
part  of  the  Basutos,  brought  on  a  condition 
which,  it  became  evident,  nothing  but  war  could 
remedy.  Accordingly,  the  Volksraad  of  the 
Orange  Free  State  authorized  the  President,  Mr. 
Roshof,  to  take  any  steps  necessary  to  prevent 
intrusion  upon  the  territory  of  the  State.  After 
much  and  very  insincere  diplomatic  correspond- 
ence, the  time  of  which  was  used  by  the  Free 
State  government  in  collecting  the  forces  of  its 
western  and  northern  divisions,  and  by  the  Ba- 
sutos in  assembling  their  warriors,  petty  raids 
began  the  conflict  and  led  on  to  hostilities  on  a 
larger  scale  near  the  end  of  March,  1858. 

By  the  26th  of  April  Mr.  Boshof  became  con- 
vinced that  the  Free  State  could  not  hold  its  own 
against  the  Basutos,  and  that  the  salvation  of  the 
country  from  being  overrun  by  its  enemies  de- 
pended upon  obtaining  aid  from  some  quarter 
Acting  on  this  conviction,  on  the  24th  of  April 
Mr.  Boshof  wrote  Sir  George  Grey,  governor  of 
Cape  Colony,  informing  him  of  the  critical  condi- 
tion of  the  Free  State,  and  imploring  his  media- 


IN   THE    FREE    STATE  I4I 

tion.  Sir  George,  after  obtaining  the  sanction  of 
the  House  Assembly  to  such  a  course,  imme- 
diately tendered  his  services  as  mediator  to  Mr. 
Boshof  and  Moshesh,  and  was  unconditionally 
and  cordially  accepted  by  both.  Thereupon  a 
cessation  of  hostilities  was  agreed  to  pending  the 
arrangement  of  final  terms  of  peace  by  Sir 
George. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Free  State  was  being 
ravaged  on  its  western  border  by  petty  chiefs, 
who  saw  in  the  struggle  between  the  whites  and 
the  powerful  Basutos  a  favorable  opportunity  to 
enrich  themselves  with  spoil.  In  the  distress  oc- 
casioned by  these  forays  the  Free  State  was  aided 
by  a  force  of  burghers  from  the  Transvaal  Re- 
public, under  Commandant  Paul  Kruger. 

Out  of  this  friendly  act  there  grew  up  a  desire 
and  even  a  proposition  to  unite  the  two  republics 
in  one.  President  Pretorius,  Commandant  Paul 
Kruger,  and  about  twenty  other  representatives 
from  the  Transvaal  visited  Bloemfontein  to  con- 
fer with  the  Free  State  Volksraad  on  the  matter 
of  union — a  measure  considered  by  many  the 
only  means  of  saving  the  country  from  its  sav- 
age foes. 

While  the  conference  on  union  was  in  prog- 
ress there  arrived,  on  the  nth  of  June,  a  letter 


142  THE    AFRICANDERS 

from  Sir  George  Grey  announcing  that  in  case 
an  agreement  to  unite  the  two  republics  were 
conchided,  the  conventions  of  1852  and  1854 — 
guaranteeing  their  separate  independence  — 
would  no  longer  be  considered  binding  by  Great 
Britain.  Undoubtedly  this  action  evinced  a  de- 
sire, not  to  say  a  determination,  that  the  Free 
State  should  find  safety  not  by  union  with  the 
sister  republic  to  the  north,  but  by  coming  again 
under  British  sovereignty  and  forming  one  of  a 
group  of  colonies  to  be  united  in  a  great  British 
Dominion  in  South  Africa.  The  negotiations  for 
union  were  dropped  on  the  receipt  of  Sir  George's 
letter,  and  both  parties  resolved  to  appoint  com- 
missioners to  confer  with  him  after  peace  with 
the  Basutos  should  be  arranged. 

It  was  not  until  the  20th  of  August  that  Sir 
George  Grey  arrived  at  Bloemfontein  to  act  as 
mediator  between  Moshesh  and  the  Free  State. 
While  preliminaries  were  being  discussed  the 
governor  received  urgent  dispatches  from  Lon- 
don ordering  him  to  send  all  available  troops  to 
India,  where  the  Sepoy  rebellion  was  raging. 
It  became,  therefore,  a  matter  of  supreme  impor- 
tance to  establish  peace  between  the  Free  State 
and  the  Basutos  at  once — for  not  a  soldier  could 
safely  be  spared  until   that  v/as   accomplished. 


IN    THE    FREE    STATE  I43 

On  the  29th  of  September  the  treaty  was  com- 
pleted and  signed.  It  settled  a  new  frontier  for 
the  Free  State  next  to  Basutoland,  and  bound 
Moshesh  to  either  punish  marauders  of  his  peo- 
ple himself,  or  consent  that  the  Free  State  au- 
thorities should  do  so. 

This  peace  lasted  only  seven  years.  In  1865 
new  troubles  arose  leading  to  a  renewal  of  war 
between  the  Free  State  and  Moshesh.  Again 
the  governor  of  Cape  Colony  acted  as  mediator, 
but  his  decisions  were  rejected  by  the  Basutos, 
and  new  hostilities  began.  This  time,  by  a 
heroic  efifort  made  in  1868,  the  whites  defeated 
and  scattered  the  Basutos  with  great  slaughter, 
and  were  at  the  point  of  utterly  breaking  their 
power,  when  the  always  politic  Moshesh  appealed 
to  the  British  High  Commissioner  at  the  Cape 
to  take  his  people  under  British  protection. 

The  commissioner  doubtless  considered  the  in- 
terests of  Cape  Colony  which,  in  the  event  of  a  dis- 
persion of  the  Basutos,  might  be  overrun  by  the 
fugitives,  and  suffer  injury  thereby.  And  it  is 
evident  that  he  was  unwilling  that  the  Free  State 
should  strengthen  itself,  beyond  the  necessity  of 
ever  seeking  readmission  to  the  British  domin- 
ions, by  the  annexation  of  Basutoland.  So,  look- 
ing to  the  safety  of  the  old  colony,  and  to  the 


144  ^^^   AFRICANDERS 

hope  of  some  day  adding  thereto  the  Orange 
Free  State,  the  commissioner  took  the  defeated 
Basutos  under  the  wing  of  the  imperial  govern- 
ment and  declared  them  British  subjects. 

The  Free  State  was  allowed  to  retain  a  con- 
siderable area  of  good  land  which  it  had  con- 
quered on  the  north  side  of  the  Caledon  River, 
but  the  adjustment  reached  was  anything  but  sat- 
isfactory. The  British  had  now  established  their 
authority  to  the  south  of  the  republic  all  the  way 
from  Cape  Colony  to  Natal,  and,  thus,  had  ex- 
tinguished a  second  time  the  persistent  African- 
der hope  of  extending  their  territory  to  the  sea. 
Thus,  in  1869,  recommenced  the  British  advance 
toward  the  interior. 

Another  momentous  step  towards  enlarging 
the  sphere  of  British  influence  was  taken  almost 
immediately.  Diamonds  were  discovered  in 
1869,  in  a  district  lying  between  the  Modder  and 
the  Vaal  rivers,  where  the  present  town  of  Kim- 
berley  stands.  Within  a  few  months  thousands 
of  diggers  and  speculators  from  all  parts  of  South 
Africa,  Europe,  America,  and  from  some  parts  of 
Asia,  thronged  into  the  region  and  transformed 
it  into  a  place  of  surpassing  value  and  interest. 
The  question  of  ownership  was  raised  at  once. 
The  Orange  Free  State  claimed  it.     The  Trans- 


IN   THE   FREE   STATE  1 45 

vaal  Republic  claimed  it.  It  was  claimed  by  Nich- 
olas Waterboer,  a  Griqua  captain,  son  of  old  An- 
dries  Waterboer ;  his  claim  being  based  on  an  abor- 
tive treaty  made  with  the  elder  Waterboer  in  1834, 
when,  at  Doctor  Philip's  suggestion,  the  attempt 
was  made  to  interpose  between  the  old  colony 
and  the  northern  populations  a  line  of  three  na- 
tive states  under  British  protection.  And  it  was 
claimed  by  a  native  Batlapin  chief. 

Three  of  these  claimant — the  Transvaal  Re- 
public, Nicholas  Waterboer  for  the  Griquas,  and 
the  Batlapin  chief  for  his  clan — agreed  to  settle 
the  conflict  by  arbitration,  naming  the  governor 
of  Natal  as  arbitrator.  The  governor  promptly 
awarded  the  disputed  ownership  to  Nicholas  Wa- 
terboer the  Griqua,  who  as  promptly  placed  him- 
self under  the  British  government,  which,  with 
equal  promptitude,  constituted  the  district  a 
crown  colony  under  the  name  of  Griqualand. 
The  Orange  Free  State,  not  having  been  a  party 
to  the  arbitration,  protested,  and  was  afterwards 
sustained  by  the  decision  of  a  British  court, 
which  found  that  Waterboer's  claim  to  the  ter- 
ritory was  null  and  void.  But  the  colony  had 
been  constituted  and  the  British  flag  unfurled 
over  it  before  the  finding  of  the  court  could  stay 
proceedings. 

10 


146  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Without  admitting  or  den3dng  the  Free  State's 
contention,  the  British  government  obtained  a 
quitclaim  title  for  a  money  consideration.  It 
was  represented  that  a  district  so  difficult  to  keep 
in  order,  because  of  the  transient  and  turbulent 
character  of  the  population,  should  be  under  the 
control  of  a  more  vigorous  government  than  that 
of  the  Free  State.  Finally,  the  British  offered 
and  the  Free  State  authorities  accepted,  £90,000 
in  settlement  of  any  claim  the  republic  might 
have  to  the  territory  of  Griqualand. 

The  incident  closed  with  the  payment  and  ac- 
ceptance, in  1876,  of  the  price  agreed  upon.  But 
the  Africanders  of  the  Free  State  had  the  feeling 
at  the  time — and  it  never  ceased  to  rankle  in  their 
breasts — that  they  had  been  made  the  victims  of 
sharp  practice ;  that  the  diamond-bearing  terri- 
tory had  been  rushed  into  the  possession  of  the 
British  and  made  a  crown  colony  without  giving 
them  a  fair  opportunity  to  prove  their  claim  to  it ; 
and  that,  while  the  price  offered  and  paid  was  a 
tacit  recognition  of  the  validity  of  their  claim,  it 
was  so  infinitesimal  in  proportion  to  the  rights 
conveyed  as  to  imply  that  in  British  practice  not 
only  is  possession  nine  points  in  ten  of  the  law 
but  that  it  also  justifies  the  holder  in  keeping 
back  nine  parts  out  of  ten  of  the  value. 


IN   THE   FREE   STATE  147 

Nor  was  this  the  only  British  grievance  com- 
plained of  at  this  time  by  the  Free  State.  The 
project  of  uniting  the  two  republics  for  greater 
strength  and  mutual  safety  had  been  vetoed  for 
no  apparent  reason  than  to  keep  them  weak  so 
that  they  might  the  sooner  become  willing  to  re- 
enter the  British  dominions  in  South  Africa.  And 
the  British  High  Commissioner  at  the  Cape  had 
taken  the  vanquished  Basutos  and  their  territory 
under  imperial  protection  at  the  moment  when 
the  victorious  Free  State  was  about  to  reduce 
them  to  permanent  submission,  and  to  extend  its 
territory  to  the  sea — again  interposing  the  arm 
of  Great  Britain  to  prevent  the  strengthening  of 
the  republic  by  its  proposed  acquisition  of  Basu- 
toland  and  the  gaining  of  a  seaport  at  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  John  River. 

Nevertheless,  the  Orange  Free  State  accepted 
the  situation  philosophically  and,  outwardly,  con- 
tinued on  friendly  terms  with  the  British  gov- 
ernment until  the  outbreak  of  war  between  that 
power  and  the  Africanders  of  the  Transvaal  in 
1899. 


148  THE    AFRICANDERS 


CHAPTER  X. 

THIRD  CONTACT  OF  AFRICANDER  AND  BRITON — IN 
THE   TRANSVAAL, 

The  aggressive  policy  of  the  British,  which 
had  served  to  widen  and  deepen  the  breach  be- 
tween them  and  the  Africanders  of  the  Free  State, 
was  felt  in  the  Transvaal  Republic,  also,  and  led 
to  an  open  rupture  in  1880.  It  will  be  necessary 
to  trace  somewhat  carefully  the  conditions  and 
events  which  brought  on  that  conflict. 

The  Africanders  who  had  settled  beyond  the 
Vaal  River  were  of  a  ruder  sort  than  their  breth- 
ren of  the  Orange  River  district.  Moreover,  the 
reckless,  unprincipled,  and  even  criminal  classes 
were  attracted  to  the  Transvaal  from  various 
parts  of  South  Africa,  seeking  freedom  from  the 
restraints  experienced  under  the  stricter  govern- 
ment prevailing  in  the  British  colonies.  These 
occasioned  much  scandal,  and  provoked  many 
conflicts  with  the  Kaffirs  by  their  lawlessness  and 
violence  along  the  border  and  in  the  wilder  dis- 
tricts of  the  territory. 


IN  THE   TRANSVAAL  I49 

The  farmers  of  the  Vaal  in  a  general  way  con- 
sidered themselves  one  people,  but  had  become, 
grouped  in  several  districts  separated  by  consid- 
erable distances.  Thus,  in  1852,  there  were  four 
separate  communities — Potchefstroom,  Utrecht, 
Lyndenburg,  and  Zoutspansberg,  each  having  its 
volksraad  and  president.  There  was  no  co-ordi- 
nate action  of  the  whole  for  internal  administra- 
tion and  public  improvement,  but  for  defense 
against  the  natives  there  was  a  sort  of  federative 
union — more  a  matter  of  mutual  understanding 
and  consent  than  of  loyalty  to  a  formal  written 
document.  That  there  was  occasional  independ- 
ent action  by  a  sirtgle  community  in  reference  to 
outside  matters  is  evident  from  the  invasion  of 
the  Orange  Free  State  by  the  people  of  the 
Potchefstroom  district  in  1857,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Mr.  Pretorius.  The  object  was  to  con- 
quer the  Free  State,  and  was  abandoned  only 
when  it  was  found  that  the  young  sister  republic 
was  disposed  and  prepared  to  defend  itself.  This 
invasion  resulted  in  a  treaty  by  which  the  inde- 
pendence, boundaries  and  mutual  obligations  of 
the  two  republics  were  fully  defined  and  recog- 
nized. 

In  1858  a  single  volksraad  was  chosen  for  all 
the    four    districts    north  of  the  Vaal,  and    the 


150  THE    AFRICANDERS 

"Grondwet"  on  Fundamental  Law — an  instru- 
ment in  the  nature  of  a  federal  constitution — was 
prepared  by  delegates  specially  elected  for  that 
purpose.  This  was  adopted  at  once  by  Potchef- 
stroom  and  Zoutspansberg.  In  i860  Lynden- 
burg  and  Utrecht  followed  their  example.  Al- 
though it  has  been  contended  that  the  "Grond- 
wet"  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  fixed  constitu- 
tion, like  that  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
the  people  of  the  Transvaal  have  looked  upon  it 
as  a  sufBcient  federative  bond  for  the  union  of  the 
four  semi-indfependent  districts  in  one  nation- 
ality. The  practical  union  of  all  was  delayed, 
however,  by  a  civil  war  which  broke  out  in  1862, 
and  had  a  most  disastrous  influence  on  the  future 
of  the  country. 

This  internal  strife  grew  out  of  the  election  of 
the  president  of  the  Transvaal  Republic,  the 
younger  Pretorius,  to  the  presidency  of  the 
Orange  Free  State.  It  was  hoped  by  his  parti- 
sans in  both  republics  that  the  dual  presidency 
would  help  to  bring  about  the  desired  union  of 
the  Free  State  and  the  Transvaal  under  one  gov- 
ernment. While  Mr.  Pretorius  was  absent  in 
the  Free  State,  on  a  six  months'  leave  granted  by 
the  volksraad  of  the  Transvaal,  a  faction  hostile 
to  him  began  to  protest  against  this  double  dig- 


IN   THE   TRANSVAAL  15I 

nity  being  enjoyed  by  any  one  man,  and  to  argue 
that  the  advantages  of  union  would  be  largely 
with  the  Free  State.  Hostility  to  Mr.  Pretorius 
grew  apace  until  it  was  strong  enough  to  get  a 
resolution  passed  in  the  volksraad  forbidding  him 
to  perform  any  executive  act  north  of  the  Vaal 
during  the  six  months  of  his  slay  in  the  Free 
State,  and  requiring  him  to  give  an  account  of  his 
proceedings  at  the  expiration  of  his  leave. 

On  the  loth  of  September,  i860,  Mr.  Pre- 
torius appeared  before  the  volksraad  of  the 
Transvaal,  accompanied  by  a  commission  from 
the  Free  State  appointed  to  ask  for  a  further 
leavve  of  absence  for  the  president,  and  to  further 
the  interests  of  union.  When  Pretorius  offered 
to  give  an  account  of  his  proceedings  as  president 
of  the  Free  State,  the  opposition  raised  the  point 
that  it  was  manifestly  illegal  for  any  one  to  be 
president  of  the  Transvaal  Republic  and  of  the 
Orange  Free  State  at  the  same  time,  for  it  was 
provided  in  their  constitution  that  during  his 
term  of  office  the  president  should  follow  no 
other  occupation,  and  Mr.  Pretorius  was  pressed 
to  resign  one  office  or  the  other. 

Pretorius  at  once  resigned  the  presidency  of 
the  Transvaal ;  but  his  partisans  held  a  mass 
meeting  at  Potchefstroom,  on  the  8th  and  9th  of 


152  THE    AFRICANDERS 

October,  at  which  revolutionary  proceedings 
were  taken.  It  was  resolved,  almost  unani- 
mously, that  the  volksraad  no  longer  enjoyed  the 
confidence  of  the  people  they  represented  and 
must  be  held  as  having  ceased  to  exist ;  that  Mr. 
Pretorius  should  remain  president  of  the  Trans- 
vaal Republic  and  have  a  year's  leave  of  absence 
to  bring  about  union  with  the  Free  State,  Mr. 
Stephanas  Schoeman — instead  of  Mr.  Grobbelear 
— to  be  acting  president  during  his  absence ;  and 
that  before  the  return  of  Mr.  Pretorius  to  resume 
his  duties  a  new  volksraad  should  be  elected. 

The  new  election  was  so  manipulated  that 
only  a  thousand  burghers  voted,  and  of  these 
more  than  seven  hundred  declared  in  favor  of  the 
resolutions  of  the  Potchefstroom  meeting.  The 
committee  that  effected  this  clever  political  strat- 
egy was  composed  of  Messrs.  D.  Steyn,  Preller, 
Lombard,  Spruyt,  and  Bodestein.  The  new  act- 
ing president,  Mr.  Schoeman,  assumed  official 
duty  immediately. 

With  amazing  inconsistency — for  he  was 
thought  to  be  a  loyal  friend  of  Mr.  Pretorius — 
Schoeman  called  a  meeting  of  the  old  volksraad 
that  had  been  dissolved  by  the  revolution.  He 
held  his  office  from  the  same  authority  that  had 
declared  this  body  to  have  forfeited  confidence, 


IN   THE   TRANSVAAL  1 53 

and  to  be  non-existent,  and  yet  he  acknowledged 
its  legal  existence.  The  old  volksraad  met  on 
the  14th  of  January,  1861,  and  after  a  session  of 
two  hours  the  majority  of  the  members  resigned, 
being  convinced  of  the  general  antagonism  of  the 
people.  Not  content  to  let  matters  rest  in  a 
peaceful  acquiescence  in  the  revolution,  Mr. 
Schoeman  called  the  old  volksraad  together  a 
second  time,  under  armed  protection,  and  pro- 
cured an  order  for  legal  proceedings  to  be  insti- 
tuted against  the  committee  that  had  carried  out 
the  Potchefstroom  resolutions.  A  court  consist- 
ing of  two  landdrosts — one  of  whom  was  Cor- 
nelius Potgieter,  their  bitterest  political  enemy 
— tried  the  committee  for  sedition,  on  the  14th  of 
February,  found  them  guilty  and  sentenced  each 
to  pay  a  fine  of  £100,  except  Mr.  Bodenstein, 
whose  fine  was  only  £15. 

These  proceedings  led  to  great  disturbances 
throughout  the  republic,  and,  finally,  to  war. 
Schoeman  assembled  an  armed  force  to  support 
his  authority.  Thereupon,  Commandant  Paul 
Kruger,  of  Rustenburg,  called  out  the  burghers 
of  his  district  and  marched  to  Pretoria  for  the 
purpose  of  driving  out  Schoeman  and  establish- 
ing a  better  government. 

Among  the  expedients  resorted  to  to  prevent 


154  THE    AFRICANDERS 

bloodshed,  a  new  volksraad  was  elected,  a  new 
acting  president  was  appointed,  and  for  several 
months  there  were  two  rival  governments  in  the 
Transvaal.  Acting  President  Schoeman,  sup- 
ported by  a  strong  party,  persisted  in  endeavors 
to  rule  the  country.  So  grievous  a  state  of  an- 
archy prevailed  that  Kruger  resolved  to  put  an 
end  to  it  by  the  strong  hand.  Schoeman  and  his 
partisans  retreated  from  Pretoria  to  Potchef- 
stroom,  where  he  was  besieged  by  the  burgher 
force  under  Kruger.  The  loss  of  life  in  the  bom- 
bardment, and  one  sortie  by  the  garrison,  was 
not  great;  but  Schoeman  became  disheartened 
and  fied,  on  the  night  of  the  9th  of  October,  into 
the  Free  State,  accompanied  by  his  principal  ad- 
herents. 

A  few  days  later,  Kruger  having  moved  his 
force  to  Klip  River,  Schoeman  re-entered  Potchef- 
stroom,  rallied  some  eight  hundred  men  arovmd 
him,  and  Kruger  returned  to  give  him  battle.  At 
this  critical  point  President  Pretorius  interposed 
as  mediator,  and  an  agreement  was  reached  by 
which    immediate    hostilities    were    prevented. 

Schoeman,  however,  continued  to  agitate, 
ft 
Under  the  terms  of  agreement  new  elections 

were  held  by  which  W.  C.  Janse  Van  Rensburg 


IN   THE    TRANSVAAL  1 55 

was  chosen  president  over  Mr.  Pretorius,  and 
Paul  Krug-er  was  made  Commandant-General. 

But  the  tribulations  of  the  Transvaal  were  by 
no  means  over.  On  the  pretense  that  the  ballot 
papers  had  been  tampered  with  the  standard  of 
revolt  was  again  raised — this  time  by  Jan  Viljoen. 
The  first  encounter  was  against  Kruger,  who  had 
underestimated  the  strength  of  the  new  rebellion. 
Later,  on  the  5th  of  January,  1864,  a  battle  was 
fought  in  which  Viljoen  was  defeated  and  com- 
pelled to  retreat  to  a  fortified  camp  on  the  Lim- 
popo. 

Again  Mr.  Pretorius  offered  himself  as  medi- 
ator, and  by  common  consent  a  new  election  was 
held  in  which  Pretorius  was  chosen  president  by 
a  large  majority  over  Van  Rensburg.  With  Pre- 
torius as  president,  and  Paul  Kruger  as  com- 
mandant-general, the  government  was  of  such 
harmony  and  strength  as  prevented  any  further 
open  rebellion  on  the  part  of  disaffected  burghers. 

But  though  the  civil  strife  was  ended,  the  in- 
jury it  had  inflicted  was  well  nigh  incurable.  It 
is  to  be  reckoned  chief  among  the  causes  of  the 
weakness  in  after  years  that  made  it  possible — 
and,  in  the  judgment  of  some,  necessary  and  justi- 
fiable— for  the  British  government  to  thrust  in 
its  strong  hand  and  subvert  the  independent  but 


156  THE    AFRICANDERS 

tottering  republic  that  it  might  substitute  there- 
for a  more  stable  colonial  administration.  The 
treasury  had  been  impoverished.  Taxes  were 
uncollected  and  irrecoverable.  Salaries  and 
other  public  liabilities  were  heavily  in  arrears. 
Worse  than  all  these,  the  republic  had  forfeited 
the  confidence  of  other  nations  to  that  degree 
that  no  one  believed  in  its  stability.  Even  its 
nearest  neighbor  and  sister  republic,  the  Orange 
Free  State,  no  longer  desired  union,  preferring 
to  stand  alone  before  the  constant  menace  of  the 
Basutos  rather  than  to  be  joined  with  a  country 
wherein  efficient  government  seemed  to  have  per- 
ished. To  make  matters  still  worse,  the  discord 
among  the  whites  was  turned  to  advantage  by 
their  colored  foes. 

When  the  several  factions  in  the  Transvaal 
united  on  Mr.  Pretorius  as  their  executive  head, 
in  1864,  the  white  population,  all  told,  did  not 
exceed  30,000 — less  than  one  person  to  three 
square  miles — while  the  blacks  in  the  same  terri- 
tory numbered  hundreds  of  thousands.  During 
the  three  years  succeeding  1861  the  prevailing  an- 
archy made  it  impossible  to  give  attention  to  ces- 
sions of  land  agreed  to  by  the  Zulu  chiefs.  In 
consequence,  the  boundaries  had  not  been  fixed, 
and  these  districts  remained  unoccupied  by  the 


IN    THE    TRANSVAAL  1 57 

.whites.  With  the  restoration  of  something  hke 
order  in  1864,  the  government  reahzed  that  its 
relations  with  some  of  its  native  neighbors  re- 
quired definition  and  formal  settlement.  This 
was  successfully  done,  and  the  lines  mutually 
agreed  upon  between  the  whites  and  the  native 
authorities  were  duly  marked. 

A  leading  spirit  among  the  Zulus  of  this  time 
was  Cetawayo,  a  chief  of  remarkable  subtlety  and 
power.  In  less  than  two  months  after  the  settle- 
ment and  marking  of  boundaries  in  the  southern 
region  of  the  Transvaal  Cetawayo  found  some 
pretext  for  repudiating  his  bargain,  appeared  on 
the  borders  of  Utrecht  at  the  head  of  a  Zulu 
army,  in  February,  1865,  and  removed  the  land- 
marks so  lately  set  up.  During  the  negotiations 
that  followed,  Cetawayo  did  not  appear  at  any 
conference,  but  the  presence  of  his  force  on  the 
border  so  far  affected  the  final  settlement  that  the 
boundary  was  changed  near  the  Pongolo  River, 
restoring  a  small  district  in  that  region  to  Zulu- 
land. 

This  was  a  time  of  perpetual  struggle  with  the 
blacks.  Some  of  the  tribes  had  been  made  trib- 
utary to  the  Republic,  others  were  practically  in- 
dependent, and  with  these  frequent  and  cruel 
wars  were  waged.     Unspeakable  atrocities  were 


158  THE    AFRICANDERS 

perpetrated  on  both  sides — the  Kafifirs  slaughter- 
ing without  mercy  such  white  famiHes  as  they 
were  able  to  surprise  in  a  defenseless  state,  and 
the  Africanders  inflicting  vengeance  without 
mercy  when  they  came  upon  the  savages  in  kraal 
or  mountain  stronghold. 

The  whites  could  always  defeat  the  natives  in 
a  pitched  battle,  but  to  hold  so  vast  a  number  in 
subjection  was  beyond  their  power.  And  they 
seem  to  have  relished  everything  connected  with 
an  expedition  against  the  blacks  but  the  expense ; 
they  had  an  invincible  dislike  to  paying  taxes  for 
any  purpose. 

In  a  rude  way  these  Transvaal  Africanders 
lived  in  the  enjoyment  of  plenty  derived  from 
their  flocks  and  herds,  but  metal  currency  was  al- 
most unknown  to  them.  Such  business  as  they 
transacted  was  mostly  in  the  nature  of  barter. 
They  were  yet  too  crude  and  primitive  in  their 
ideas  to  value  aright  the  benefits  secured  to  a 
civilized  community  by  a  well  organized  and 
firmly  administered  government  controlling  fiscal 
and  other  domestic  matters  of  general  interest,  as 
well  as  directing  foreign  policies. 

The  public  treasury  was  in  a  state  of  chronic 
emptiness.  The  paper  currency  depreciated 
more  and  more  till  in  1870  its  purchasing  value 


IN    THE   TRANSVAAL  1 59 

was  only  twenty-five  per  cent  of  its  face  value. 
Public  works  and  proper  internal  administration 
were  unknown.  Largely,  every  man's  will  was 
his  law,  which  he  was  disposed  to  enforce  upon 
others — whether  black  or  white — by  the  strong 
hand. 

In  1872  Mr.  Pretorius  became  cordially  dis- 
liked by  the  people  and  was  forced  to  resign  the 
presidency,  because  he  had  accepted  the  finding 
of  the  arbitration  which  awarded  the  diamond 
fields  to  Nicholas  Waterboer  instead  of  to  the 
Transvaal  Republic.  His  successor,  Mr.  Bur- 
gess, a  native  of  Cape  Colony  and  an  unfrocked 
clergyman  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  was 
an  unfortunate  choice.  Learned,  eloquent  and 
energetic,  he  was  nevertheless  deficient  in  prac- 
tical business  wisdom  and  in  political  acumen, 
and  he  was  much  distrusted  by  the  burghers  on 
account  of  his  theological  opinions.  Some  of 
them  charged  that  he  was  guilty  of  maintaining 
that  the  real  Devil  differed  from  the  pictures  of 
him  in  the  old  Dutch  Bibles,  in  that  he  had  no 
tail.  For  this  and  worse  forms  of  heterodoxy  he 
was  blamed  as  the  cause  of  the  calamities  ex- 
perienced by  the  nation  during  his  presidency. 
Mr.  Burgers  is  said  to  have  formed  many  vision- 
ary though  patriotic  plans  for  the  development 


l6o  THE   AFRICANDERS 

of  his  country  and  the  extension  of  the  African- 
der power  over  the  whole  of  South  Africa,  but  his 
people  were  not  of  the  sort  that  could  appreciate 
them,  nor  had  he  command  of  resources  suffi- 
cient to  carry  them  out. 

Then  drew  near  the  culmination  of  evil — the 
inevitable  consequence  of  weakness  in  numbers ; 
of  indisposition  to  submit  to  a  strong  govern- 
ment; of  a  treasury  impoverished  by  civil  war; 
of  continual  conflict  with  the  savage  blacks ;  and, 
withal,  of  a  state  of  anarchy  among  themselves. 
In  1876  the  portents  of  approaching  calamity 
multiplied.  In  a  war  with  Sikukuni,  a  powerful 
Kaffir  chief  paramount  in  the  mountainous  dis- 
trict to  the  northeast,  the  Africanders  were 
worsted  so  completely  that  they  returned  to 
their  homes  disheartened  and  in  confusion.  On 
the  southeast  their  border  was  threatened  by 
hordes  of  Zulus  under  Cetawayo,  now  manifest- 
ing a  decided  disposition  to  attack. 

In  fact,  the  weak  and  disordered  condition  of 
the  republic  exposed  its  own  people — many  of 
whom  were  British  subjects — to  immediate  and 
frightful  danger.  Moreover,  it  constituted  a 
danger  to  all  the  European  communities  in  South 
Africa.  In  the  event  of  two  such  chiefs  as  Siku- 
kuni and  Cetawayo  joining  forces  against  the 


IN   THE   TRANSVAAL  l6l 

whites  and  prevailing,  as  they  seemed  able  and 
likely  to  do,  over  the  frontier  civilization  in  the 
Transvaal  Republic,  nothing  could  prevent  them 
from  moving  in  strength  against  the  Free  State 
on  the  south,  and  Natal  on  the  southeast,  and 
later,  against  Cape  Colony  itself. 

It  was  not  without  cause,  therefore,  that  the 
British  government  resolved  to  avert  the  threat- 
ened conflict.  There  were  two  possible  ways  of 
doing  this.  Britain  might  have  taken  the  field  as 
a  friendly  ally,  making  common  cause  with  the 
Transvaal  Republic  against  a  common  danger, 
and  leaving  its  independence  intact.  The  other 
way  was  to  annex  the  Transvaal  territory,  sub- 
vert its  republican  government,  and  give  it  the 
status  and  administration  of  a  British  colony. 
There  is  no  record  to  show  that  the  British  gov- 
ernment ever  entertained  the  thought  of  acting 
as  the  ally  of  the  republic.  On  the  contrary.  Sir 
Theophilus  Shepstone  was  appointed  as  imperial 
commissioner  to  visit  the  scene  of  danger  and  ex- 
amine into  the  state  of  the  country.  He  was 
secretly  instructed  and  authorized  to  proclaim 
the  immediate  annexation  of  the  Transvaal  terri- 
tory to  the  British  dominions  in  South  Africa  in 
case  he  deemed  it  necessary  for  the  general  safety 


1} 


l62  THE    AFRICANDERS 

to  do  SO,  and  if,  in  his  judgment,  a  majority  of 
the  people  would  favor  the  step. 

After  three  months  spent  in  observing  and 
studying  the  situation  Sir  Theophilus  Shepstone, 
acting  under  the  secret  instructions  given  him,  on 
the  I2th  of  April,  1877,  declared  The  Transvaal 
Republic  annexed,  for  protection,  to  British  do- 
minions in  South  Africa.  His  act  was  indorsed 
officially  by  the  resident  British  High  Commis- 
sioner at  the  Cape,  and  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Colonial  Office  in  England.  In  1879  the  Terri- 
tory was  declared  a  crown  colony  of  Great  Brit- 
ain. Thus,  in  the  third  contact  of  Boer  and  Brit- 
on, an  independent  republic  was  deprived  of  its 
independence  by  the  self-same  power  that  had 
guaranteed  it  in  1852,  and  was  reduced  to  the 
status  of  a  crown  colony  without  the  formal  con- 
sent of  its  people  and  against  the  protests  of  many 
of  them. 

Before  closing  this  chapter  of  events  con- 
nected with  this  arbitrary  and  startling  measure, 
it  will  be  well  to  consider  some  further  facts  which 
belong  to  the  setting  in  which  the  act  should  be 
viewed.  Mr.  Burgers,  the  president,  had  repeat- 
edly warned  the  people  that  unless  certain  re- 
forms could  be  efifected  they  must  lose  their  inde- 
pendence.   They  agreed  with  him,  but  did  noth- 


IN    THE   TRANSVAAL  163 

ing  to  carry  out  the  necessary  reforms,  nor  would 
they  pay  taxes.  Mr.  Burgers  was  not  strong 
with  any  party  in  the  country.  One  section  of 
the  people  were  for  Paul  Kruger,  his  rival  candi- 
date for  the  approaching  presidential  election. 
Another  party — principally  English  settlers — fa- 
vored annexation.  Besides,  he  had  estranged 
the  great  body  of  the  people  by  his  heterodox 
opinions  in  theology.  Being  helpless,  Mr.  Bur- 
gers recorded  his  personal  protest  against  an- 
nexation and  returned  to  the  Cape,  where  he 
lived  on  a  pension  granted  him  in  consideration 
of  his  having  spent  all  his  private  fortune  in  the 
service  of  his  country. 

Mr. Kruger — then  the  vice-president,  the  en- 
tire executive  council,  and  the  volksraad,  all  pro- 
tested against  the  annexation;  and  delegates 
were  sent  to  London  to  carry  the  protest  to  the 
foot  of  the  British  throne.  The  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple made  no  resistance  at  the  time,  nor  did  they 
express  much  displeasure ;  but,  a  little  later,  a 
large  majority  of  them  signed  a  petition  praying 
for  a  reversal  of  the  act  of  annexation.  Their 
temporary  acquiescence  in  the  loss  of  independ- 
ence was  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  depressing  fears 
that  had  so  lately  burdened  them,  and  a  sense  of 


164  THE    AFRICANDERS 

relief  in  knowing  that  now  the  Kaffir  invasion 
that  had  theatened  their  very  existence  would  be 
repelled  by  the  military  power  of  Great  Britain. 


FIRST  WAR  165 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  Africander's  first  war  of  independence. 

Notwithstanding  their  native  love  of  inde- 
pendence, and  their  protest  to  the  British  throne 
against  the  act  of  annexation,  the  Africanders  of 
the  Transvaal  might  have  acquiesced  in  the  Brit- 
ish rule  had  they  been  fairly  treated.  There 
was  a  good  promise  of  peace  at  first.  The 
finances  of  the  country  were  at  once  relieved  by 
the  expenditure  of  English  money  in  liberal 
amounts.  Numbers  of  the  leading  Africanders 
retained  their  official  positions  at  the  request  of 
the  British  commissioner.  Sir  Theophilus  Shep- 
stone.  It  is  only  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
people  at  large  would  have  settled  down  to  per- 
manent content  as  British  subjects  had  the 
affairs  of  the  newly  constituted  colony  been  ad- 
ministered to  the  satisfaction  of  the  leaders. 

But,  instead  of  following  a  policy  dictated 
alike  by  wisdom  and  righteousness,  the  very  op- 
posite seems  to  have  been  the  rule  observed  in 


l66  THE    AFRICANDERS 

the  attempt  to  govern  these  new  and  most  dif- 
ficult subjects  of  the  British  crown.  A  number 
of  mistakes — so  called — were  made  which,  as 
even  Canon  Knox  Little  admits,  were  a  sufficient 
justification  of  the  Africander  leaders  in  plotting 
and  agitating  against  the  British  connection. 

The  first  of  these  mistakes  was  the  too  early 
recall  of  Sir  Theophilus  Shepstone,  who  had  so 
deftly  managed  the  bloodless  though  arbitrary 
annexation,  who  knew  the  country  well  and  was 
much  respected  by  the  people.  In  place  of  his 
rule  as  special  commissioner  was  substitwted  an 
administration  under  Sir  BartleFrere  as  gov- 
ernor of  Cape  Colony  and  British  High  Com- 
missioner for  South  Africa.  There  being  no  rep- 
resentative government  in  the  Transvaal  after 
annexation,  the  administration  became,  perhaps 
necessarily,  autocratic  both  in  form  and  in  spirit. 
Sir  William  Owen  Lanyon,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed governor  of  the  Transvaal,  was  an  officer 
of  some  renown  in  dealing  successfully  with  na- 
tive uprisings,  but  proved  totally  unfit  for  the 
delicate  management  required  in  governing  the 
Africanders.  He  has  been  described  as  haughty 
and  arrogant  in  mind,  indisposed  to  excuse  the 
rudeness  of  the  Transvaal  farmers,  and  incapable 
of  tolerating  the  social  equality  so  dear  to  them. 


FIRST   WAR  167 

His  swarthy  complexion,  also,  made  against  his 
popularity,  for  it  suggested  the  possibility  of  a 
strain  of  black  blood  in  his  veins — a  blemish  un- 
pardonable in  the  eyes  of  any  slaveholding  peo- 
ple. Under  his  rule  complaints  were  ignored, 
taxes  were  levied  and  peremptorily  collected  by 
distraint,  and  soon  the  latent  discontent  broke 
out  into  open  and  active  disaffection. 

The  second  mistake — if  it  does  not  deserve  a 
harsher  name — was  the  failure  to  institute  the 
local  self-government  by  representatives  prom- 
ised by  Sir  Theophilus  Shepstone  when  he  pro- 
claimed annexation.  The  text  of  that  part  of  the 
proclamation  reads  thus : 

"And  I  further  proclaim  and  make  known 
that  the  Transvaal  will  remain  a  separate  gov- 
ernment, with  its  own  Laws  and  Legislature,  and 
that  it  is  the  wish  of  her  Most  Gracious  Majesty 
that  it  shall  enjoy  the  fullest  legislative  privileges 
compatible  with  the  circumstances  of  the  country 
and  the  intelligence  of  the  people.  That  ar- 
rangement will  be  made  by  which  the  Dutch  lan- 
guage will  practically  be  as  much  the  official  lan- 
guage as  the  English.  All  laws,  proclamations 
and  government  notices  will  be  published  in  the 
Dutch  language;  and  in  the  courts  of  law  the 
same  may  be  done  at  the  option  of  suitors  to  a 


l68  THE    AFRICANDERS 

case.  The  laws  so  in  force  in  the  State  will  be 
retained  until  altered  by  competent  legislative 
authority." 

Not  one  of  these  promises  was  ever  fulfilled. 
The  volksraad  was  never  convened.  The  prom- 
ised constitution  of  local  self-government  was 
never  promulgated.  Instead  of  redeeming  these 
promises  the  Transvaal  was  put  upon  the  status 
of  a  crown  colony  in  1879,  and  the  legislature 
proposed  for  it  was  to  consist  of  some  crown  offi- 
cials and  six  members — all  to  be  the  nominees  of 
the  governor. 

Mr,  Bryce,  in  his  "Impressions  of  South 
Africa,"  calls  this  failure  to  redeem  a  promise  au- 
thoritatively made  as  a  concession  to  a  people 
whose  independence  was  being  arbitrarly  sub- 
verted, a  "blunder."  Canon  Little  uses  a  still 
softer  term,  calling  it  a  "mistake" ;  and  adds,  "It 
was  given  in  good  faith,  and  in  good  faith  was 
received.  Sir  Theophilus  Shepstone  tried  to  ful- 
fill it.  He  at  once  submitted  his  views  as  to  the 
necessary  legislative  arrangements.  No  action 
whatever  was  taken  on  it,  either  by  Conserva- 
tives or  Liberals,  and  his  dispatch  is  probably 
lying  uncared  for  in  the  Colonial  Office  now!" — 

(1899.) 

And  so,  in  the  mutations  of  language  as  cur- 


CFX'II.    J.    RHOUKS. 


FIRST    WAR  169 

rently  used  in  history  and  in  Christian  ethics,  it 
has  come  to  pass  that  this  piece  of  national 
treachery — this  treachery  of  the  strong  against 
the  weak — this  treachery  implicating  both  of  the 
leading  political  parties  of  Great  Britain  and 
their  chiefs,  is  only  a  "blunder,"  a  "mistake" ! 

One  real  and  very  serious  blunder  was  com- 
mitted, if  one  judges  of  it  from  the  view  point 
of  the  policy  intended  to  be  pursued  in  the  Trans- 
vaal by  the  British  government.  The  African- 
ders had  accepted,  under  protest,  the  act  of  an- 
nexation mainly  because  they  were  in  mortal  fear 
of  the  Zulus.  That  reason  for  submission  the 
British  proceeded  to  remove  by  overthrowing  the 
Zulu  power. 

In  the  northeast  Sir  Garnet  Wokeley  defeated 
Sikukuni  and  established  what  promised  to  be  a 
permanent  peace.  In  1879  Sir  Bartle  Frere  in- 
flicted a  like  reverse  upon  Cetewayo,  in  the  south- 
east, and  so  completed  the  subjugation  of  the 
Zulus.  The  blunder  in  taking  this  course  de- 
clared itself  when,  after  subduing  the  natives  at 
great  cost  of  blood  and  treasure,  the  British 
found  that  in  so  doing  they  had  relieved  the 
Africanders  of  the  one  fear  that  thus  far  had  pre- 
vented them  from  reasserting  their  independence. 

Many  people,  both  in  England  and  in  South 


I/O  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Africa,  regarded  the  annexation  of  the  Transvaal 
as  final.  But  leading  members  of  the  Liberal 
party,  then  in  opposition,  had  emphatically  con- 
demned it,  and  this  had  raised  hopes  in  the 
Transvaal  Africanders  and  their  sympathizers  in 
England  that  when  Gladstone  came  into  power 
again  the  things  which  they  regarded  as  wrong 
would  be  righted.  Such  hopes  were  doomed  to 
disappointment. 

In  1880  the  Liberals  carried  the  country  and 
took  office  in  April  of  that  year.  Guided  by  in- 
formation derived  from  the  crown  officials  in 
South  Africa,  the  new  ministers  were  misled  as 
to  the  measure  of  discontent  in  the  Transvaal, 
and  declared  that  the  act  of  annexation  would 
not  be  reversed. 

This  flat  refusal  brought  matters  to  an  imme- 
diate issue.  The  Transvaal  burghers,  though 
they  had  continued  to  agitate  and  protest  and 
memorialize  the  throne,  had  waited  with  con- 
siderable patience  for  three  years,  hoping  for 
either  a  restoration  of  their  independence  or — 
as  the  next  best  thing — the  instituting  of  such  a 
representative  local  government  as  had  been 
promised  them  by  the  imperial  authorities.  But 
now  the  new  Liberal  government,  after  using 
the  Transvaal  grievances  for  electioneering  pur- 


FIRST  WAR  171 

poses,  had  refused  to  consider  and  redress  those 
grievances ;  the  military  administration  of  a  mere 
crown  colony  continued  in  full  force  under  the 
detested  Sir  William  Owen  Lanyon ;  and  there 
appeared  to  be  no  hope  that  the  promises  made 
to  mollify  their  indignation  when  their  independ- 
ence was  being  subverted  would  ever  be  fulfilled. 

It  has  been  said,  in  extenuation,  that  the  Brit- 
ish government  of  this  time  was  too  busy  with 
other  pressing  matters  to  give  the  attention  nec- 
essary to  a  correct  understanding  of  the  condition, 
and  the  rights  and  the  wrongs,  of  the  Transvaal 
Africanders.  And  it  has  been  said,  in  further 
extenuation,  that  there  was  an  honest  intention 
on  the  part  of  the  government  to  fulfill  the  prom- 
ises made — some  time — as  soon  as  the  authorities 
could  get  to  it.  Be  that  as  it  may,  at  the  end  of 
three  years,  which  had  brought  no  betterment 
of  their  state,  the  burghers  concluded  that  their 
protests  and  their  patience  had  been  wasted,  and 
determined  to  wait  no  longer. 

Accordingly  a  mass-meeting  was  held  at 
Paardekraal,  in  December,  1880,  at  which  it  was 
resolved  to  appeal  to  arms.  The  burghers 
elected  Messrs.  Pretorius,  Paul  Kruger  and  Jou- 
bert  to  proclaim  for  them  the  re-establishment  of 
their  former  government  as  the  South  African 


172  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Republic,  which  was  done  in  Heidelberg,  and 
the  national  flag  was  raised,  on  the  i6th  of  De- 
cember, 1880. 

The  first  battles  of  this  war  were  little  more 
than  skirmishes.  The  British  troops  were  scat- 
tered through  the  country  in  small  detachments, 
which  the  Africanders — every  man  of  whom  was 
a  marksman  and  an  experienced  fighter — found 
it  easy  to  either  cut  off  or  drive  before  them  to 
positions  that  could  be  fortified. 

The  nearest  available  British  troops,  besides 
those  already  in  the  Transvaal,  were  in  Natal. 
General  Sir  George  Colley,  governor  of  that  col- 
ony, raised  what  force  he  could  and  marched 
northward  to  check  the  uprising.  Before  he 
could  enter  the  Transvaal,  however,  Command- 
ant-General Joubert  crossed  the  border  into 
Natal  and  took  up  a  strong  position  at  Laing's 
Nek.  This  now  historic  spot  is  a  steep  ridge 
forming  the  watershed  between  the  Klip  River, 
a  tributary  of  the  Vaal,  and  Buafflo  River,  a  con- 
fluent of  the  Tugela,  which  flows  into  the  Indian 
Ocean.  Here  a  sanguinary  battle  was  fought 
on  the  28th  of  January,  1881.  The  British  at- 
tacked the  Africanders  with  great  spirit,  but  Jou- 
bert's  position  was  invulnerable.  The  ridge  pro- 
tected his  men  from  the  artillery  fire  of  the  Brit- 


FIRST   WAR  173 

ish,  while  they,  in  charging  up  the  slope,  were 
cut  down  by  the  accurate  rifle  fire  of  the  Afri- 
canders, and  forced  to  retreat.  On  the  8th  of 
February,  in  the  same  neighborhood,  on  the  In- 
gogo  heights,  the  British  were  again  defeated 
after  suffering  severe  loss. 

General  Colley  now  decided  to  seize  by  night 
Majuba  Hill,  which  is  really  a  considerable 
mountain,  rising  nearly  2,000  feet  above  Laing's 
Nek,  and  commanding  that  ridge  for  the  pur- 
pose of  artillery  fighting.  On  the  night  of  Feb- 
ruary 26th,  leaving  the  main  body  of  his  army  in 
camp,  and  unaccountably  forgetting  to  order  it  to 
advance  on  the  enemy  so  as  to  divert  atten- 
tion from  his  tactical  movement,  General  Colley 
led  a  smaller  division  to  the  top  of  j\Iajuba  Hill. 

The  burgher  force  was  thrown  into  tempo- 
rary dismay  when  they  first  observed  British  sol- 
diers in  that  commanding  position.  But  when 
there  was  no  advance  against  them  in  front,  and 
no  artillery  fire  from  the  top  of  Majuba,  they  sent 
out  a  volunteer  party  to  storm  the  hill.  The 
story  of  that  charge  has  gone  into  history  to  stay 
as  an  example,  on  the  one  side,  of  rugged  bravery 
and  splendid  courage  achieving  victory,  and  on 
the  other  of  equal  bravery  and  courage  strangely 
betrayed  by  some  one's  blunder  into  defeat  and 


174  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ruinous  disaster.  Why  the  main  force  of  the 
British  army  was  not  ordered  to  co-operate  in 
the  movement,  why  there  were  no  entrenchments 
thrown  up  on  the  hill,  why  the  order,  "Charge 
bayonets,"  so  eagerly  looked  for  by  the  British 
soldiers  on  the  hill-top,  was  never  given.  General 
Colley  did  not  live  to  tell — no  one  else  knew. 
The  Africanders  scaled  the  hill,  shooting  as  they 
went  up  every  man  that  showed  on  the  sky  line 
— themselves  protected  by  the  steep  declivities 
above  them,  and  carried  the  hill-top,  routing  and 
almost  annihilating  the  British  force.  General 
Colley  and  ninety-two  of  his  men  were  killed,  and 
fifty-nine  were  made  prisoners. 

In  the  meanwhile  additional  British  troops 
were  hurrying  to  the  scene  of  conflict,  under 
command  of  Sir  Evelyn  Wood.  What  the  out- 
come would  have  been  of  further  hostilities  be- 
tween the  Africanders  and  the  greatly  increased 
British  force  no  one  can  tell.  The  sudden  and 
surprising  action  of  the  British  government,  that 
put  an  end  to  the  war,  was  not  based  upon  any 
estimate  of  the  probable  issue  of  continued  con- 
flict, but  altogether  upon  the  moral  aspects  of  the 
situation  as  seen  by  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  British  cabinet.  Before  Sir  Evelyn 
Wood  could  strike  a  single  blow  toward  wiping 


iFIRST   WAR  175 

out  the  disgrace  of  Majuba  Hill,  the  home  gov- 
ernment, on  the  5th  of  March,.  1 881,  ordered  an 
armistice,  and  on  the  23d  agreed  to  terms  of 
peace  by  which  the  Transvaal  was  restored  to  its 
former  political  independence  in  all  regards,  save 
that  it  was  to  be  under  the  suzerainty  of  the 
British  crown. 

In  August,  1881,  a  more  formal  convention 
was  held  at  Pretoria,  when  it  was  agreed  that  the 
Transvaal  government  should  be  independent  in 
the  management  of  its  internal  affairs ;  that  the 
Republic  should  respect  the  independence  of  the 
Swazies,  a  tribe  of  natives  on  the  eastern  border 
of  the  Transvaal ;  that  British  troops  should  be 
allowed  to  pass  through  the  territory  of  the  Re- 
public in  time  of  war;  and  that  the  British  sov- 
ereign should  be  acknowledged  as  suzerain  of 
the  Republic  and  have  a  veto  power  over  all 
treaties  between  the  government  of  the  Transvaal 
and  foreign  nations. 

Several  of  the  stipulations  in  this  convention 
were  very  distasteful  to  Paul  Kruger  and  other 
leading  spirits  in  the  Transvaal,  and  also  to  the 
volksraad.  Negotiations  for  desired  changes 
were  continued  until  1884,  when,  on  the  27th  of 
February,  a  revision  called  the  London  Conven- 


176  THE    AFRICANDERS 

tion  was  made  and  signed,  formulating  the  obli- 
gations of  the  Republic  as  follows  : 

The  Sovereign  of  Great  Britain  was  to  have, 
for  the  space  of  six  months  after  their  date,  a  veto 
power  over  all  treaties  between  the  Republic  and 
any  native  tribes  to  the  eastward  and  westward 
of  its  territory,  and  between  it  and  any  foreign 
state  or  nation  except  the  Orange  Free  State. 

The  stipulations  of  the  two  previous  conven- 
tions respecting  slavery,  those  of  1852  and  1881, 
were  to  be  observed  by  the  Republic. 

And  the  Republic  was  to  accord  to  Great 
Britain  the  treatment  of  a  most  favored  nation, 
and  to  deal  kindly  with  strangers  entering  its 
territory. 

Nothing  whatever  was  said  in  this  latest  con- 
vention of  the  suzerainty  of  the  British  Sovereign 
mentioned  in  that  of  1881,  and,  as  this  instru- 
ment, negotiated  in  London  with  Lord  Derby, 
the  Colonial  Secretary,  was  understood  to  take 
the  place  of  all  former  conventions,  the  African- 
ders of  the  Transvaal  have  contended  very  rea- 
sonably that  the  omission  is  sufificent  evidence 
of  the  renunciation  of  suzerainty  by  the  British 
government.  Furthermore,  by  the  London  Con- 
vention of  1884,  the  British  crown  for  the  first 
time  conceded  to  the  Transvaal  the  title  of  'The 


FIRST  WAR  177 

South  African  Republic,"  by  which  name  it  has 
ever  since  been  designated  in  all  diplomatic 
transactions  and  correspondence  between  it  and 
other  states. 


12 


178  THE    AFRICANDERS 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    AFRICANDER    REPUBLICS    AND    BRITISH 
POLICY. 

The  surprising  policy  pursued  by  the  British 
government  in  arbitrarily  annexing  the  Trans- 
vaal in  1877,  and  in  restoring  its  independence  in 
1881,  after  a  brief  and  indecisive  conflict  at  arms, 
and  when  strong  re-enforcements  had  placed  the 
imperial  troops  in  position  to  crush  the  African- 
der uprising,  caused  widespread  dissatisfaction 
and  bitter  controversy  both  in  England  and  in 
South  Africa.  Why  had  the  country  been  an- 
nexed at  all  ?  And  seeing  it  had  been  annexed, 
why  was  it  so  ignominiously  yielded  up  imme- 
diately after  the  disgrace  of  Majuba  Hill  ?  There 
were  many  at  home  and  in  the  South  African 
colonies  who  would  have  been  satisfied  to  restore 
the  independence  of  the  Transvaal — but  only 
after  having  inflicted  on  the  Africander  forces 
at  least  one  crushing  defeat. 

The  only  reply  of  the  Liberal  government 


CONFLICTING    POLICIES  I79 

was  to  the  effect  that  the  annexation,  and  the  re- 
fusal to  reverse  it,  had  been  due  to  misapprehen- 
sion of  the  facts ;  that  the  officers  of  the  crown  in 
South  Africa,  partly  through  ignorance  and 
partly  through  prejudice,  had  reported  that  there 
was  no  such  passionate  desire  for  independence 
among  the  Africanders  as  was  pretended  by  their 
leaders,  and  as  was  proved  to  exist  by  the  upris- 
ing; that  as  soon  as  the  facts  were  known  it  be- 
came the  duty  of  a  liberty-loving  people  like  the 
English  to  honor  their  own  princples  by  the  im- 
mediate retrocession  of  the  Transvaal  without 
waiting  to  first  avenge  defeats  and  vindicate  the 
military  superiority  of  Great  Britain ;  and  that  a 
great  country  better  illustrated  her  greatness  by 
doing  justice  and  showing  mercy,  even  at  great 
cost  to  herself,  than  by  taking  a  bloody  revenge 
for  reverses  suffered  on  the  fields  of  war  in  trying 
to  enforce  a  policy  now  seen  to  be  morally  wrong. 
Moreover,  associated  with  these  moral  con- 
siderations were  reasons  of  statecraft  that  made  it 
appear  wise  as  well  as  right  to  let  the  Transvaal 
go.  The  Africanders  of  the  Orange  Free  State, 
of  Cape  Colony,  of  Natal,  were  known  to  be  in 
warm  sympathy  with  their  brethren  of  the  Trans- 
vaal. Of  course,  the  power  of  Great  Britain 
could  crush,  in  time,  a  rebellion  as  extensive  as 


l8o  THE    AFRICANDERS 

the  whole  Dutch-speaking  population  of  South 
Africa,  but  at  what  cost  of  treasure  and  blood  and 
bitter  disloyalty  to  the  British  crown !  In  com- 
parison to  the  inevitable  results  of  a  general  civil 
war  the  loss  of  the  Transvaal  was  as  nothing. 
How  well  grounded  were  these  fears  of  a  general 
uprising  in  1881  may  be  seen  in  the  earlier  events 
of  the  second  Africander  War  of  Independence 
in  1899.  With  no  late  grievance  against  Great 
Britain  to  redress,  the  Orange  Free  State  made 
common  cause  with  the  South  African  Republic 
from  the  first,  and  the  Africanders  of  Cape  Col- 
ony and  Natal  were  more  than  suspected  of  aid- 
ing and  abetting  in  a  covert  way  the  cause  for 
which  the  two  republics  had  taken  the  field. 

If  the  British  ministers  counted  upon  some 
recognition  of  the  magnanimity  displayed  in  mak- 
ing the  retrocession  immediately  after  defeat — of 
the  humanity  which  renounced  revenge  for  the 
humiliation  of  Majuba  Hill  when  it  was  within 
easy  reach — they  were  disappointed.  The  Afri- 
canders saw  not  generosity,  not  humanity,  but 
only  fear  as  the  motive  for  the  sudden  and  easy 
yielding  of  the  British ;  and  to  their  natural  ex- 
liltation  they  added  contempt  for  their  late  an- 
tagonists, and  so  became  and  have  continued 
very  unpleasant  neighbors  for  so  proud-spirited 


CONFLICTING    POLICIES  l8l 

a  people  as  the  English.  And  this  is  the  princi- 
pal reason  why  the  English  in  all  South  Africa 
have  always  condemned  the  restoration  of  inde- 
pendence to  the  Transvaal — and,  most  of  all,  the 
time  and  manner  of  the  act.  They  have  not  been 
able  to  forget  the  fact  that  the  terms  of  peace 
were,  in  a  way,  dictated  by  the  Africanders  as 
victorious  invaders  and  holders  of  British  terri- 
tory in  the  colony  of  Natal. 

In  order  to  view  intelligently  the  causes  of 
the  second  Africander  War  of  Independence,  it 
is  necessary  to  consider  the  general  trend  of 
events  in  South  Africa,  and  the  conflicting  pol- 
icies sought  to  be  carried  out  there  during  the 
few  years  following  the  restitution  of  independ- 
ence to  the  Transvaal. 

The  South  African  Republic  emerged  from 
its  brief  and  successful  struggle  for  independence 
impoverished  and  in  a  state  of  political  chaos, 
but  rejoicing,  nevertheless,  in  a  sense  of  national 
freedom,  and  more  than  ever  confident  that  it 
enjoyed  the  special  favor  of  Heaven.  The  old 
constitution,  or  Grondwet,  was  revived,  the 
volksraad  was  convoked,  and  an  election  was 
held,  resulting  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Paul  Kruger 
^  to    be    president.       Mr.    Kruger    immediately 


1^2  THE    AFRICANDERS 

planned  for  bold  and  far-reaching  movements  on" 
three  sides  of  the  republic's  territory. 

A  great  trek  to  the  north  for  the  occupation 
of  Mashonaland  was  projected  but  never  carried 
out.  To  the  south  Zululand  was  now  open,  and 
into  it  went  a  number  of  adventurers  as  trekkers, 
followed,  a  little  later,  by  others  who  took  serv- 
ice under  one  of  the  warring  native  chiefs.  When 
these  took  steps  to  set  up  a  government  of  their 
own  in  the  northern  districts  of  Zululand  the 
British  authorities  interfered  and  restricted  their 
claim  to  a  small  teritory  of  about  three  thousand 
square  miles,  which  enjoyed  an  independent  ex- 
istence as  the  New  Republic  from  1886  to  1888, 
when  it  was  annexed  by  the  Transvaal. 

Other  bands  of  Africanders  raided  parts  of 
Bechuanaland,  to  the  west,  taking  forcible  pos- 
session of  territory  or  obtaining  grants  of  land 
by  devices  not  always  honorable.  These  intimi- 
dated the  native  chiefs  into  an  acknowledgment 
of  their  authority  and  established  two  small  re- 
publics, Stella  and  Goshen,  to  the  north  of  Kim- 
berley. 

These  proceedings  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
British  government  to  the  policy  upon  which  the 
South  African  Republic  had  entered — to  annex 
Bechuanaland  and  close  the  way  of  British  com- 


CONFLICTING    POLICIES  183 

munication  with  regions  still  farther  north  in 
which  the  nation  had  become  interested.  To 
check  these  designs  in  time,  a  military  expedi- 
tion under  Sir  Charles  Warren  entered  Bechu- 
analand  toward  the  end  of  1884,  expelled  the 
Africanders  without  bloodshed,  and  proclaimed 
the  whole  region  a  crown  colony  under  the  name 
of  British  Bechuanaland.  This  territory  was  an- 
nexed to  Cape  Colony  in  1895.  In  1885  a  British 
protectorate  was  established  over  a  still  more 
northerly  region,  covering  the  whole  country  as 
far  as  the  borders  of  Matabeleland.  In  1888  the 
British  hold  was  made  yet  more  secure  by  a 
treaty  with  the  king  of  the  Matabele,  Lo  Bengula, 
by  which  he  bound  himself  to  cede  no  territory 
to,  and  to  make  no  treaty  with,  any  foreign  power 
without  the  approval  of  the  British  High  Com- 
missioner. 

The  raising  of  the  British  flag  at  St.  Lucia 
Bay,  on  the  Indian  Ocean,  in  1884,  and  a  treaty 
with  the  Tonga  tribes,  binding  them  to  make  no 
treaties  with  any  other  power  than  the  English, 
completed  the  hold  of  the  British  crown  on  the 
eastern  coast  line  up  to  the  southern  border  of 
the  Portuguese  possessions. 

The  Africanders,  denied  expansion  on  the 
north,  sought  compensation  in  the  acquisition  of 


184  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Swaziland,  to  the  east  of  the  Transvaal  republic 
— a  small  but  fertile  region  and  possessing  con- 
siderable mineral  wealth.  It  was  inhabited  by 
some  70,000  Kafifirs,  near  of  kin  but  hostile  to  the 
Zulus.  After  long  negotiations,  in  which  the 
South  African  Republic,  Cetawayo  of  the  Zulus, 
and  the  British  authorities  took  part,  the  Afri- 
canders secured  a  concession  of  right  to  build  a 
railway  through  the  marshy  region  lying  between 
Swaziland  and  the  sea  to  the  coast  at  Kosi  Bay ; 
this  concession  was  granted  in  1890  and  laid  in 
abeyance  awaiting  the  acquisition  of  Swaziland 
itself,  through  which  the  railway  must  run.  In 
1894  the  whole  territory  of  Swaziland  was  placed 
under  the  control  of  the  South  African  Republic, 
subject  to  a  formal  guaranty  of  protection  to  the 
natives. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  it  was 
Africander  dullness  or  British  sharpness,  or 
both,  that  omitted  from  the  Swaziland  conven- 
tion of  1894  the  concession  to  the  South  African 
Republic,  granted  in  1890,  of  a  right  to  construct 
a  railway  to  the  sea  through  the  marshy  district 
of  Tongaland  lying  next  the  coast  line.  But  it 
was  omitted  from  that  instrument,  and  it  was 
held  that,  as  the  later  convention  superseded  and 
voided  the  earlier  one,  the  provision  for  access 


CONFLICTING    POLICIES  185 

to  the  sea  had  lapsed.  Whereupon  the  British 
government  promptly  secured  the  consent  of  the 
three  Tonga  chiefs  concerned,  and  proclaimed  a 
protectorate  over  the  whole  strip  of  land  lying 
between  Swaziland  and  the  ocean,  up  to  the 
southern  portion  of  the  Portuguese  territory. 
Thus  by  a  stroke  of  statecraft  the  access  of  the 
Africanders  to  the  sea  by  railway  communication 
entirely  under  their  own  control  was  effectually 
stopped. 

Within  nine  years  the  British  control  estab- 
lished in  Bechuanaland  in  1885  was  extended 
over  the  whole  unappropriated  country  as  far 
north  as  the  Zambesi.  By  a  new  treaty  made 
with  Lo  Bengula  in  1888  the  sphere  of  British 
influence  was  further  expanded  to  embrace  not 
only  Matabeleland,  but  Mashonaland  also — a 
partially  explored  territory  to  the  eastward,  over 
which  Lo  Bengula  claimed  some  authority. 

The  next  step  in  working  out  the  policy  of 
the  British  in  South  Africa  was  the  granting  of  a 
royal  charter  to  a  corporation  known  as  the 
British  South  African  Company,  formed  to  de- 
velop this  eastern  and  undefined  region  of  Lo 
Bengula's  territory.  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  was  con- 
spicuous as  the  leader  in  this  movement.  The 
purpose  of  the  company  was  twofold:    To  de- 


l86  THE   AFRICANDERS 

velop  the  gold  fields  supposed  to  exist  there,  and 
to  forestall  the  Transvaal  Africanders  in  taking 
possession  of  the  country.  The  charter  not  only 
invested  the  company  with  the  rights  of  a  trading 
corporation,  but  also  with  administrative  powers 
as  representative  of  the  British  crown.  In  1890 
the  pioneer  emigrants  under  this  management 
began  to  arrive  in  the  chartered  territory  and 
commenced  to  found  settlements  and  build  forts 
along  the  eastern  plateau. 

With  the  conflicts  which  arose  between  the 
British  South  African  Company  and  the  Portu- 
guese— complicated  by  alliances  with  the  natives, 
with  the  wars  which  arose  therefrom,  and  with 
the  final  adjustments  and  treaties  that  followed — 
we  have  nothing  to  do  in  these  pages.  The  one 
fact  that  is  of  interest  to  us  in  closing  this  chap- 
ter of  conflict  in  statecraft  is  that  at  last  the  Brit- 
ish succeeded  in  isolating  the  Africanders  from 
the  sea,  and  in  throwing  around  them  a  perfect 
cordon  of  British  territories  and  pre-emptions. 
By  chartering  the  British  South  African  Com- 
pany to  the  north  of  the  Transvaal  the  last  link 
in  the  chain  that  inclosed  the  two  Africander  re- 
publics was  completed.  For  there  had  been  left 
no  possibility  of  advance  toward  the  sea  eastward 
on  the  part  of  the  Transvaal  Republic — in  the  Ar- 


CONFLICTING   POLICIES  187 

bitration  Treaty  of  1872  Great  Britain  had  ob- 
tained pre-emption  rights  over  the  Portuguese 
colonial  possessions.   ' 


l88  THE   AFRICANDERS 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CAUSES  or  THE  AFEICANDERS'  SECOND  WAR  OF  IN- 
DEPENDENCE. 

In  one  sense  the  causes  of  the  Second  War 
of  Independence,  like  those  of  the  first,  were  as 
remote  as  the  British  seizure  of  Cape  Colony  in 
1795,  and  as  the  years  between  1814  and  1836, 
which  saw  the  accumulation  of  grievances  that 
led  to  the  "Great  Trek."  Seeds  of  dislike  to  the 
English  were  then  sown  in  the  Africander  mind 
which  have  never  ceased  to  propagate  themselves 
' — an  ominous  heredity — from  father  to  son 
through  all  the  intervening  generations. 

The  immediate  causes  of  that  war  were  of 
a  more  recent  date.  Tracing  backward,  the  war 
was  brought  about  by  the  alleged  grievances  of 
a  multitude  of  foreigners — vastly  outnumbering 
the  citizens — who,  for  their  own  purposes,  had 
entered  the  territory  of  the  South  African  Re- 
pubhc  within  a  single  decade;  these  foreigners 
went  there  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth ;   the  wealth 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  189 

that  enticed  them  there  was  in  the  rich  gold  de- 
posits of  the  Witwatersrand  district  of  the  Trans- 
vaal. If  the  gold  had  not  been  there,  or  had  not 
been  discovered,  the  excess  of  foreigners  would 
not  have  pressed  into  the  country ;  if  the  foreign- 
ers had  not  flocked  into  it  in  great  excess  of  num- 
bers over  the  citizens,  there  would  have  been  no 
alleged  grievances  to  redress,  and  therefore  no 
war,  unless  one  or  both  of  the  parties  to  it  had 
predetermined  to  bring  about  a  conflict  at  this 
time  and  found  some  other  pretext. 

Tracing  from  cause  to  effect  up  to  the  war, 
we  begin  with  unimportant  discoveries  of  gold 
near  the  eastern  border  of  the  Transvaal  between 
1867  and  1872.  Though  these  were  not  rich  in 
themselves,  they  encouraged  more  vigorous  and 
extensive  prospecting  than  had  been  practiced 
theretofore.  This  led  to  the  discovery,  in  1885, 
of  the  marvelously  rich  deposits  of  the  precious 
metal  in  beds  of  conglomerate  in  the  Witwaters- 
rand district.  The  influx  of  strangers  had  been 
considerable  from  1882,  but  from  1885  to  1895 
the  foreign  additions  to  the  population  of  the 
Transvaal  threatened  to  submerge  the  native 
Africander  citizens,  for  the  newcomers  were 
mostly  men,  and  largely  exceeded  in  number  the 


igO  THE    AFRICANDERS 

entire  Africander  population,  including  the 
women  and  the  children. 

The  first  result  of  the  new  mining  industry 
and  the  rapid  growth  of  the  towns  was  pleasant 
enough — the  revenues  of  the  needy  republic  were 
increased,  and  there  was  a  promise  of  unprece- 
dented prosperity.  Nevertheless,  in  the  tidal 
wave  of  incoming  aliens  from  the  British  colo- 
nies in  South  Africa,  from  Europe  and  from 
America — most  of  them  British,  and  nearly  all 
speaking  English — the  far-seeing  president,  Paul 
Kruger,  and  other  leaders  of  political  life  in  the 
Transvaal,  early  recognized  an  element  of  peril 
to  their  cherished  domestic  institutions. 

As  a  defense  against  the  passing  of  control- 
ling power  into  the  hands  of  transient  settlers, 
the  electoral  franchise  was  somewhat  restricted. 
Up  to  the  convention  of  1881  the  probation  of  an 
alien  seeking  enfranchisement  in  the  Transvaal 
Republic  was  a  residence  in  the  country  for  two 
years.  At  that  time,  with  the  arbitrary  annexa- 
tion of  1877  fresh  in  their  minds,  and  knowing 
that  the  British  authorities  had  been  solicited  to 
take  that  step  by  English  residents  in  the  Trans- 
vaal, it  is  a  matter  of  no  surprise  that  the  Afri- 
canders extended  the  probation  for  franchise  to 
five  years — the  period  required  in  the  United 


SECOND  war:    its  causes  191 

States  of  America.  That  provision  was  in  force 
when  the  London  Convention  was  signed,  in 
1884;  it  passed  unquestioned  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment, and  was  still  in  force  in  1890.  Up  to 
that  date  the  franchise  had  kept  the  native  Afri- 
cander element  in  a  safe  majority. 

As  a  concession  to  demands  on  the  part  of 
foreigners  for  a  reduction  of  the  period  of  resi- 
dence required  for  naturalization,  Mr.  Kruger 
proposed,  in  1890,  to  divide  the  volksraad,  which 
consisted  of  forty-eight  members,  into  two  cham- 
bers of  twenty-four  members  each,  the  first  to 
retain  supreme  power,  the  second  to  be  compe- 
tent to  legislate  in  all  matters  local  to  the  new  in- 
dustrial population  gathered,  principally,  in  and 
about  Johannesburg,  and  its  acts  to  be  subject 
always  to  the  veto  of  the  first  volksraad.  The 
measure  provided,  also,  that  in  electing  members 
of  the  second  volksraad  only  two  years'  residence 
and  the  ordinary  process  of  naturalization  should 
be  required  of  aliens,  their  franchise  for  the  first 
volksraad  still  being  subject  to  an  additional  five 
years'  probation. 

This  measure  was  passed  by  the  volksraad 
after  a  good  deal  of  opposition  by  the  more  con- 
servative members.  It  has  been  condemned  as 
clumsy  and  inadequate ;  but  it  is  worth  while  to 


192  THE   AFRICANDERS 

weigh  Mr.  Kruger's  own  words  explanatory  of 
his  purpose  in  it.  "I  intend  this  second  volks- 
raad,"  he  said,  "to  act  as  a  bridge.  I  want  my 
burghers  to  see  that  the  new  population  may 
safely  be  trusted  to  take  part  in  the  government 
of  the  country.  When  they  see  that  this  is"  done, 
and  that  no  harm  happens,  then  the  two  volk- 
raads  may  come  together  again,  and  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  old  and  the  new  population  can 
be  obliterated."  It  should  be  remembered,  how- 
ever, that  the  two  years'  franchise  gave  the  citi- 
zen no  vote  in  the  election  of  the  president  and 
the  executive  council — for  that  privilege  he  had 
to  fill  out  the  additional  five  years'  probation — 
and  that  no  naturalized  burgher  could  become  a 
member  of  the  first  volksraad. 

Discontent  continued  to  spread  among  the 
new  industrial  population,  who  complained  bit- 
terly of  exclusion  from  important  political  rights, 
and  of  grievances  which  they  and  the  mining  in- 
dustry suffered  under  the  existing  laws  and  ad- 
ministration. As  a  means  of  redress  a  reform  as- 
sociation was  formed  in  1893.  It  is  necessary  to 
a  correct  judgment  of  the  situation  at  this  time  to 
consider  the  statements  of  both  sides  as  to  the 
causes  of  complaint. 


THE    RIGHT    HON.    JDSRTH    CH AMUEKLAIN. 


SECOND    WAR  :      ITS    CAUSES  I93 

According  to  Canon  Little,  who  cannot  be 
accused  of  favoring  the  Africanders — 

"The  grievances  of  the  Uitlanders  were  these  : 

"i.  That  the  customs  tariff  was  excessive, 
making  food  shamefully  dear,  and  that  the 
charges  for  railway  freights  were  unduly  heavy. 

"2,  That  the  duties  on  machinery  and  chem- 
icals were  extortionate. 

"3.  That  these  and  the  dynamite  monopoly 
made  the  expense  of  all  mining  operations  ex- 
cessive. 

"4.  The  extreme  unfairness  as  to  the  vexa- 
tious laws  touching  on  education  and  the  use  of 
language." 

Over  against  these  allegations  are  the  state- 
ments of  Mr.  F.  Reginald  Statham  in  his  "South 
Africa  as  It  Is."  Mr.  Statham  writes  from  the 
Africander  viewpoint,  but  gives  some  guaranty 
of  sincerity  and  of  confidence  in  his  own  aver- 
ments by  an  appeal  to  figures — which  can  always 
be  verified.  Speaking  in  a  general  way  of  the 
conditions  prevailing  at  this  period,  he  says : 

"The  idea  of  the  persecuted  and  oppressed 
Uitlanders  has  become  so  fixed  in  the  minds  of 
English  people — thanks  to  the  efforts  of  those 
who  were  occupied  in  preparing  and  justifying  a 
revolt — that  even  the  plainest  statement  of  facts 

13 


194  THE    AFRICANDERS 

seems  powerless  to  dispossess  it.  No  one  will 
claim,  no  one  ever  has  claimed,  that  the  govern- 
ment of  the  South  African  Republic  is  perfect. 
Having  regard  to  the  extraordinary  changes  that 
have  come  over  the  country  during  the  last  ten 
years,  it  is  really  a  marvel  that  the  government  is 
not  much  more  imperfect  than  it  is.  The  present 
position  of  the  Transvaal  executive  has  been  not 
inaptly  compared  to  the  position  of  the  crew  of 
a  collier  brig  who  might  suddenly  find  them- 
selves in  control  of  a  first-class  mail  steamer. 
However  desirous  they  might  be  of  doing  their 
best,  they  could  hardly  avoid  making  some  mis- 
takes. If  the  foreign  population  had  much  more 
to  complain  of  than  they  have,  it  ought  not  to 
cause  either  surprise  or  indignation. 

"And  what  have  they  to  complain  of?  Really, 
the  life  of  the  average  foreigner  in  Johannesburg 
is  the  freest  imaginable.  He  can  follow  his  trade, 
he  can  follow  his  profession,  no  matter  what  it  is, 
without  any  question  or  hindrance  from  the  gov- 
ernment. His  position  as  an  Uitlander  in  no  way 
hinders  him  from  investing  in  property,  from 
practicing  as  a  lawyer  in  the  courts,  from  under- 
taking, in  fact,  as  freely  as  he  could  undertake  in 
his  own  country,  any  lawful  kind  of  business  or 
occupation.    If  he  pays  a  high  rent  for  his  house, 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  195 

that  is  not  the  fault  of  the  government,  but  of  the 
land  speculators  who  have  bought  up  building 
stands.  If  his  water  supply  is  somewhat  defect- 
ive, it  is  the  fault  of  the  big  foreign  capitalists, 
who  think  more  of  the  dividends  they  put  in  their 
own  pockets  than  of  the  water  they  put  into  the 
people's  mouths. 

"A  government  which  depends  on  the  good- 
will of  a  strictly  Sabbatarian  population  allows 
the  Uitlander  to  spend  his  Sunday  exactly  as  he 
pleases.  He  may  play  lawn  tennis  if  he  likes — 
and,  indeed,  he  generally  does  so;  he  may  en- 
gage in  cricket  matches,  he  can  attend  so-called 
sacred  concerts,  the  programmes  of  which  are 
drawn  from  the  music  hall  or  the  comic  opera. 
If  he  is  in  a  gayer  mood  he  may  witness  on  a 
Sunday  evening  displays  of  ''living  pictures" 
which  certainly  would  not  be  tolerated  at  the 
Royal  Aquarium.  To  put  it  shortly,  allowing  for 
little  drawbacks  of  climate  and  the  expense  of 
living,  the  Uitlander  can  live  more  at  his  ease  in 
Johannesburg  or  Pretoria  than  in  almost  any 
other  city  under  the  sun. 

"But  he  is  taxed. 

"How  is  he  taxed  ?  There  is  probably  no  one 
in  the  Transvaal,  rich  or  poor,  whose  personal 
taxes  amount  to  more  than  £5  a  year.     If  it  is 


196  THE    AFRICANDERS 

complained  that  he  is  taxed  through  his  interest 
in  the  gold  industry  it  is  easy  to  make  an  appeal 
to  published  figures.  In  1895  the  Crown  Reef 
Gold  Mining  Company  produced  gold  worth  up- 
ward of  £420,000,  and  distributed  nearly  £97,000 
in  profits.  Its  payment  to  the  Government  for 
rents,  licenses,  and  all  other  privileges  and  rights 
amounted  to  £1,191  9s  lod.  In  the  same  year 
the  Robinson  Company,  which  had  produced 
£651,000  in  gold  and  distributed  £346,000  in  div- 
idends, paid  to  the  government  £395  us  8d,  The 
New  Chimes  Company,  producing  £93,000  in 
gold  and  distributing  £32,000  in  profits,  paid  un- 
der the  head  of  rates  and  licenses,  together  with 
insurance  premiums,  £664  i6s  5d.  The  Trans- 
vaal Coal  Trust  produced  266,945  tons  of  coal, 
and  paid  the  government  £53  15s,  while  the  Con- 
solidated Land  and  Exploration  Company,  in 
which  the  Ecksteins  are  the  largest  shareholders, 
and  which  owns  more  than  250  farms  of  6,000 
acres  each,  paid  to  the  government  in  the  shape 
of  taxes,  including  absentee  tax,  no  more  than 
£722  2s  6d. 

"These  figures  are  sufficiently  eloquent  by 
themselves.  They  become  more  eloquent  when 
they  are  placed  beside  the  50  per  cent  impost 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  197 

claimed  by  the  Chartered  Company  on  all  gold- 
mining  enterprise  in  Rhodesia. 

"But  what  about  indirect  taxation  ?  Here  are 
the  facts : 

"All  machinery  for  mining  purposes  is  sub- 
ject to  only  i^  per  cent  impost  dues,  the  term 
machinery  being  stretched  by  the  government 
to  its  uttermost  possibilities  to  meet  the  mining 
industry,  and  it  is  made  to  include  sheet  lead, 
cyanide,  etc.  All  other  articles  not  specially 
rated  are  subject  to  an  ad  valorem  duty  of  7^  per 
cent,  the  Cape  Colonist  paying  an  ad  valorem 
duty  of  12  per  cent.  Specially  rated  articles  af- 
fecting the  white  miners,  such  as  tea,  coffee,  but- 
ter, rice,  soap,  sugar,  are  in  most  cases  subject  to 
lower,  and  only  in  one  instance  to  higher,  duties 
than  in  Cape  Colony. 

"Here  is  a  comparison : 

Cape  Colony.  Transvaal. 

Butter 3d  per  lb.  Ss  od  per  100  lbs. 

Cheese 3d  per  lb.  5s  od  per  100  lbs. 

Coffee I2S  6d  per  100  lbs.  2s  6d  per  100  lbs. 

Rice 3s  6d  per  100  lbs.  is  6d  per  100  lbs. 

Soap 4s  2d  per  100  lbs.  5s  od  per  100  lbs. 

Sugar 6s  3d  per  100  lbs.  3s  6d  per  100  lbs. 

Tea 8d  per  lb.  2s  6d  per  100  lbs. 

Guns £1  per  barrel.  los  od  per  barrel. 

"As  regards  monopolies  and  concessions,  the 

dynamite  monopoly  is  often  quoted  as  an  in- 


198  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Stance  of  the  manner  in  which  monopolies  are 
granted,  to  the  detriment  of  the  mining  interest. 
It  has  been  complained  that  the  government  re- 
tains a  right  to  charge  90s  a  case  for  what  can  be 
produced  for  30s  a  case.  These  figures,  however, 
are  exaggerated  both  ways.  The  government 
charge  is  85s  a  case,  and  as  the  dynamite  used  by 
De  Beers,  at  Kimberley,  costs  more  than  60s  a 
case  laid  down  there,  it  can  hardly  be  held  that 
85s  is  a  high  charge  in  Johannesburg,  having  re- 
gard to  the  much  greater  distance  of  Johannes- 
burg from  the  sea.  In  this  matter  of  the  dyna- 
mite concession,  moreover,  it  was  a  choice  be- 
tween a  foreign  monopoly  and  a  local  monopoly, 
while  in  the  reports  of  mining  companies  in 
which  explosives  are  separately  accounted  for  it 
is  shown  that  while  total  working  expenses  run 
up  to  over  30s  per  ton,  the  cost  of  explosives  is 
less  than  is  3d  per  ton. 

"As  regards  the  railway  concessions,  the  truth 
of  the  matter  is  that  the  Transvaal  Railway  Com- 
pany— the  Netherlands  South  African  Railway 
Company,  that  is — by  providing  competing 
routes  to  Johannesburg  from  Natal  and  Dela- 
goa  Bay,  keeps  in  check  the  monopoly  which 
would  certainly  be  taken  great  advantage  of  by 


SECOND  war:    its  causes  199 

the  Cape  Colony  if  the  only  route  to  Johannes- 
burg was  from  Cape  ports." 

It  may  be  allowed — it  must  be — that  the  old 
saw,  "figures  will  not  lie,"  is  unsound.  In  the 
hands  of  capable  and  unscrupulous  persons  they 
will  lie  like  Ananias  and  Sapphira.  But,  like  that 
of  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  the  lie  in  figures  brings 
swift  detection  and  punishment.  It  ought  to  be 
easy,  therefore,  for  those  who  have  filled  the  ears 
of  the  world  with  charges  of  Africander  oppres- 
sion practiced  upon  the  foreigners  in  the  way  of 
"excessive  customs  tarifif,"  "extortionate  duties 
on  machinery,"  and  the  "dynamite  monopoly  that 
made  the  expense  of  all  mining  operations  ex- 
cessive," to  convince  the  world-jury  to  which 
they  have  appealed  that  they  have  a  case.  They 
ought  at  least  to  be  able  to  show  that  in  British 
Rhodesia  the  impost  on  the  profits  of  gold  min- 
ing was  not  50  per  cent,  while  in  the  Transvaal  it 
was  about  8  per  cent  thereof;  that  in  British 
Cape  Colony  the  ad  valorem  duty  on  articles  not 
specially  rated  was  not  12  per  cent,  while  in  the 
Transvaal  it  was  75^^  per  cent ;  that  in  British 
Cape  Colony  specially  rated  articles  afifecting  the 
white  miner  as  to  expense  of  living  were  not 
taxed  all  the  way  from  100  to  500  per  cent  higher 
than  in  the  Transvaal,  with  the  single  exception 


200  THE   AFRICANDERS 

of  soap;  that  an  import  duty  of  i^  per  cent  on 
mining  machinery  was  extortionate  as  compared 
with  the  tariff  of  other  nations,  or  that  a  higher 
duty  than  i^  per  cent  was  collected  in  the  Trans- 
vaal ;  and  that  a  profit  of  25s  a  case  on  dynamite, 
less  the  cost  of  transportation  from  Kimberley  to 
Johannesburg,  and  only  causing  the  expense  for 
explosives  used  in  mining  to  be  is  3d  per  ton  of 
ore  out  of  a  total  cost  of  30s  per  ton,  was  an  op- 
pressive* monopoly  causing  the  cost  of  mining  to 
be  excessive. 

Concerning  the  other  grounds  of  complaint 
Mr.  Statham  writes : 

"There  are,  besides  the  material  grievances 
alluded  to  above,  what  may  be  called  the  polit- 
ical grievances,  such  as  (i)  the  alleged  govern- 
ment of  the  country  by  a  small  faction  of  Hol- 
landers, (2)  the  language  grievance,  (3)  the  edu- 
cational grievance,  and  (4)  the  franchise  griev- 
ance. 

"As  regards  the  first  mentioned  of  these,  an 
honest  and  impartial  person  would  search  for  evi- 
dence of  it  in  vain.  All  the  members  of  the  ex- 
ecutive, with  one  exception,  are  South  African 
born ;  so  are  the  majority  of  heads  and  sub- 
heads of  departments.  *  *  *  f^e  only 
Hollander  of  any  distinction  in  the  government 


SECOND    war:      its    causes  201 

is  the  state  secretary,  Dr.  Leyds,  a  man  of  excep- 
tional ability  and  integrity,  who,  in  spite  of  enor- 
mous difficulties  and  constant  attacks,  has  de- 
served and  retained  the  confidence  both  of  the 
president  and  the  volksraad.  To  say  that  he  is 
the  ablest  and  most  cultured  official  in  South 
Africa  is  to  say  what  is  simply  true,  and  if  his 
ability  has  excited  jealousy  and  resentment,  it  is 
only  what  a  general  study  of  human  nature  would 
lead  one  to  expect. 

"As  regards  the  language  question  and  the 
education  question,  consideration  has  to  be  paid 
to  the  language  most  usually  spoken  in  the  coun- 
try. Entirely  misleading  ideas  are  liable  to  be 
formed  on  this  point,  owing  to  the  erroneous  im- 
pression as  to  the  relative  strength  of  the  Dutch 
and  the  foreign  population.  A  habit  has  arisen 
of  speaking  as  if  the  foreign  population  greatly 
outnumbered  the  burgher  population.  The  case 
is  quite  the  opposite  of  this.  The  census  of  Jo- 
hannesburg taken  in  1896  by  the  Johannesburg 
Sanitary  Commission  showed  that  the  population 
of  the  place  had  been  greatly  overestimated,  the 
male  European  population  of  all  ages  amounting 
to  31,000.  As  there  are  25,000  burghers  on  the 
military  register  of  the  republic,  it  seems  fair  to 
assume  that  the  burgher  population  is  at  least 


202  THE    AFRICANDERS 

150,000,  while  the  foreign  population  is  probably 
not  more  than  half  of  that.  Of  the  150,000  bur- 
ghers and  their  families  fully  two-thirds  do  not 
understand  English.  Is  it,  then,  unreasonable 
to  claim  that  the  official  language,  the  language 
of  official  documents,  shall  be  the  language 
spoken  by  two-thirds  of  the  people,  or  do  the 
women  and  children  count  for  nothing?  But  al- 
though the  official  language  by  law  is  Dutch, 
there  is  not  a  single  government  office  in  which 
there  is  not  English  or  German  spoken  to  those 
who  cannot  speak  Dutch.  In  the  higher  courts 
the  judges  frequently  shut  their  eyes  to  the  use  of 
the  English  language  in  the  witness-box,  and  in 
the  lower  courts  English  is  invariably  spoken  by 
English  litigants. 

"As  regards  the  education  question,  there  is 
not  now  much  need  to  discuss  it.  The  volksraad 
during  the  session  of  1896  passed  a  law  in  further 
expansion  of  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  law 
of  1892,  and  under  the  regulations  drawn  up  in 
accordance  with  the  law,  as  now  expanded,  state 
schools,  in  which  English-speaking  children  will 
be  taught  in  English,  and  which  are  placed  under 
the  control  of  representative  school  boards,  have 
been  established  in  the  gold-mining  districts. 

"The  franchise  question  has  been  made  the 


SECOND  war:    its  causes  203 

subject  of  special  complaint.  Here,  however, 
there  are  several  difficulties  in  the  way.  In  the 
first  place,  the  majority  of  the  foreign  population 
do  not  want  the  franchise,  because  they  are  quite 
content  with  their  position  as  it  is  and  do  not 
want  to  become — as  they  would  have  to  do  if 
they  exercised  the  franchise — burghers  of  the 
South  African  Republic.  The  very  agitation 
over  the  question  has  increased  the  difficulty, 
for  the  more  there  seems  to  be  a  possibility  of  a 
serious  misunderstanding  between  the  Transvaal 
and  Great  Britain,  the  less  disposed  British  sub- 
jects become  to  place  themselves*  in  a  position 
which  might  compel  them  to  fight  against  their 
own  countrymen.  Meantime  the  government 
and  the  volksraad  have  been  compelled  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  agitation  for  the  franchise  is 
not  genuine — that  it  has  not  been  encouraged 
with  the  view  to  obtaining  a  concession,  but  with 
the  object  of  establishing  a  grievance.  They 
have  seen,  too,  that  to  grant  wholesale  political 
privileges  to  the  foreign  residents  in  Johannes- 
burg, even  if  those  foreign  residents  were  willing 
to  become  naturalized,  would  be  to  a  great  extent 
to  deliver  up  the  interests  of  all  the  dependent 
classes — the  shopkeepers,  the  miners,  the  pro- 
fessional men — into  the  hands  of  a  small  group  of 


204  THE    AFRICANDERS 

capitalists,  who  would  use  their  influence,  as  they 
have  used  it  elsewhere,  to  corrupt  the  political 
atmosphere  and  to  subject  the  interests  of  every 
individual  to  their  own.     The  political  tyranny 
that  exists  in  Kimberley,  where  employes  of  De 
Beers  are  compelled  to  vote  to  order  on  pain  of 
dismissal,  supplies  a  sufficient  illustration  of  what 
would  happen  in  Johannesburg  if  once  the  finan- 
cial  conspirators   secured  political   control.     A 
further  and  most  significant  illustration  is  sup- 
plied by  a  well-known  incident  in  connection 
with  the  revolutionary  movement  in  Johannes- 
burg, when  miners  under  the  control  of  the  lead- 
ing conspirators  were  ordered  to  take  up  arms 
under  penalty  of  forfeiting  their  wages.    That  in 
the  great  majority  of  cases  they  preferred  the  lat- 
ter course  is  in  itself  a  complete  exposure  of  the 
hollowness    of   the   whole   revolutionary   move- 
ment.   In  all  known  cases  of  revolution  arising 
from  discontent  on  the  part  of  a  mining  popula- 
tion it  has  been  the  miners  who  have  taken  the 
lead  and  dragged  others  in  with  them.     In  this 
case  the  miners,  who  had  never  dreamed  of  dis- 
content, were  ordered  to  take  up  arms  and  re- 
fused. 

"Out  of  the  facts  of  the  position  actually  ex- 
isting in  Johannesburg  and  other  gold-mining 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  205 

centers  it  was  utterly  impossible  for  any  honest 
man  to  manufacture  a  serious  complaint,  least  of 
all  such  a  complaint  as  would  in  any  respect  jus- 
tify a  revolution  to  secure  redress.  So  far  from 
being  treated  with  unfairness  or  hardship,  the 
foreign  residents  in  the  Transvaal  have  been 
treated  with  marked  consideration.  The  inter- 
ests of  the  gold  industry  have  been  consulted  in 
every  possible  way.  If  the  government  has  not 
in  some  instances  been  able  to  do  all  it  might 
have  wished  to  do,  it  has  been  because  the  reck- 
less language  of  a  portion  of  the  press  and  the 
overbearing  attitude  of  the  capitalist  agitators 
have  aroused  the  suspicion  and  the  resentment 
of  the  volksraad. 

"Yet  out  of  this  position  of  things  a  case  had 
to  be  got  up  against  the  Transvaal  government 
in  order  to  justify  the  revolutionary  movement 
that  had  been  planned  in  the  interest  of  the  small 
groups  of  capitalists  who  had  determined  to 
make  themselves  as  supreme  over  the  gold  in- 
dustry in  Johannesburg  as  they  had  become  over 
the  diamond  industry  in  Kimberley." 

It  has  seemed  necessary  to  quote  Mr.  Stat- 
ham  thus  at  length  in  order  that  the  alleged 
grievances  of  the  foreigners  in  the  Transvaal,  and 
the  Africander  answer  thereto  may  be  considered 


206'  THE    AFRICANDERS 

side  by  side.  To  say  the  least,  Mr.  Statham  has 
not  dealt  in  vague  generalities.  His  assertions 
are  specific  and  his  figures  can  easily  be  investi- 
gated. It  is  for  those  who  sympathize  with  the 
complaints  which  led  to  prolonged  agitation  and 
finally  to  war,  to  show  that  Mr.  Statham  was  in 
error.  Until  they  shall  have  done  so  charges  of 
"oppressive"  and  "extortionate"  imposts,  taxes 
and  tariffs  will  lie,  not  against  the  South  African 
Republic,  but  against  the  British  administra- 
tion in  Cape  Colony,  Natal  and  Rhodesia. 

Mr.  Statham's  contention  that  the  Dutch 
ought  to  be  the  official  language  of  the  Trans- 
vaal seems  well  founded.  The  account  he  gives 
of  a  somewhat  tardy  provision — made  after  the 
raid  of  December,  1895 — for  the  instruction  of 
English  children  in  the  English  language  evinces 
a  disposition  to  meet  the  reasonable  demands  of 
the  foreigners  in  that  regard;  but  the  delay  in 
doing  so  is  to  be  regretted.  The  matter  of  fran- 
chise became  the  subject  of  acrimonious  diplo- 
matic negotiation  and  the  immediate  cause  of 
war,  which  will  be  treated  of  more  fully  in  a  later 
chapter. 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  207 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CAUSES  OF  THE  AFRICANDERS'  SECOND  WAR  OF  IN- 
DEPENDENCE.— CONTINUED. 

The  foreigners'  Reform  Association,  some- 
times called  the  National  Union,  was  organized  at 
Johannesburg  in  1893.  Its  professed  object  was 
to  secure  redress  of  grievances.  This  is  always 
allowable  in  a  free  country;  but  it  is  matter  of 
record  that  the  spirit  and  methods  of  this  partic- 
ular association  were  not  calculated  to  propitiate 
the  people  to  whom  they  must  look  for  any  relief 
from  the  sufferings  of  which  they  complained. 

Two  incidents  will  sufficiently  illustrate  this. 
In  1894  Lord  Loch,  the  British  High  Commis- 
sioner for  South  Africa,  visited  the  Transvaal  to 
conduct  certain  negotiations  with  the  executive 
concerning  Swaziland.  The  presence  of  this  dis- 
tinguished Crown  Official  in  the  Transvaal  was 
made  the  occasion  by  the  association  of  offering 
a  public  insult  to  President  Kruger  in  Pretoria, 
of  promoting  a  violent  outburst  of  pro-British 


208  THE    AFRICANDERS 

and  anti-Africander  sentiment  in  Johannesburg, 
and  of  a  conference  between  Lord  Loch  and  Mr. 
Lionel  Phillips,  a  member  of  one  of  the  leading 
financial  houses  in  Johannesubrg,  in  which  was 
considered  the  propriety  of  assembling  a  body  of 
imperial  troops  on  the  borders  of  the  Transvaal 
for  the  support  of  any  revolutionary  movement 
that  might  be  made.  These  proceedings  were 
reminiscent  to  the  Africanders  of  an  earlier  dem- 
onstration, prior  to  the  forming  of  the  National 
Union.  In  1890  President  Kruger  visited  Johan- 
nesburg to  confer  with  leading  citizens  on  the 
mitigation  of  the  grievances  complained  of.  The 
foreigners  celebrated  his  coming  in  that  friendly 
way  by  drinking  to  excess,  by  singing  in  his  ears 
"God  Save  the  Queen"  as  a  suitable  song  of  wel- 
come to  the  President  of  the  South  African  Re- 
public, and  by  tearing  down  the  national  flag  of 
the  Transvaal  which  was  floating  in  front  of  the 
house  in  which  the  conference  was  being  held. 
With  a  moderation  not  to  be  expected  from  Paul 
Kruger,  the  president  charitably  attributed  the 
ofifensive  proceedings  to  "long  drinks" ;  but  the 
people  in  general  and  their  representatives  were 
much  embittered  by  them,  and  the  effect  was 
unfavorable  to  the  carrying  of  any  measures  for 
the  benefit  of  the  foreigners. 


SECOND   WAR :      ITS   CAUSES  209 

Throughout  1894  and  1895,  both  on  the  sur- 
face of  things  and  beneath  it,  appearances  were 
ominous  of  coming  disturbance.  On  the  surface 
there  was,  from  Cape  Town,  an  open  advocacy  of 
violent  measures  in  Johannesburg,  should  such 
be  found  necessary  to  bring  about  the  desired, 
changes  in  favor  of  the  foreigners.  Mr.  Edmund 
Garrett,  editor  of  the  "Cape  Times,"  openly 
stated  at  Bloemfontein,  in  1895,  that  his  presence 
in  South  Africa  was  connected  with  a  purpose 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes,  premier  of  Cape 
Colony,  and  his  associates,  to  "force  the  pace."' 
And  it  was  at  this  time  that,  as  before  stated,  the 
British  authorities  suddenly  annexed  the  Tonga- 
land  territory,  through  which  the  Africanders 
had  secured  a  concession  and  projected  a  rail- 
way to  the  sea — thus  deepening  the  impression 
to  a  painful  and  alarming  certainty  that  the  Im- 
perial Government  was  intentionally  unfriendly 
to  that  of  the  South  African  Republic. 

Under  the  surface  very  momentous  things 
were  going  on.  In  Rhodesia  a  volunteer  police 
force  was  being  enrolled  by  Sir  John  Willoughby. 
This  gentleman,  speaking  for  his  superior,  Doc- 
tor Jameson,  assured  the  men  that  they  would 
only  be  required  to  serve  in  a  "camp  of  exercise" 


14 


210  THE   AFRICANDERS 

once  a  year,  and  that  they  would  not  be  taken 
beyond  the  borders  of  Rhodesia. 

Fitting  in  very  significantly  with  this  move- 
ment, the  Bechuanaland  Protectorate — lying 
next  neighbor  to  Rhodesia  on  the  south  and 
to  the  Transvaal  on  the  west — was  transferred 
to  the  Chartered  Company  controlling  Rhodesia, 
a  measure  that  enabled  Doctor  Jameson  to  sta- 
tion his  volunteer  police  force  on  the  Transvaal 
border  without  taking  them  out  of  the  enlarged 
Rhodesia. 

Meantime,  rifles,  ammunition  and  Maxim 
guns  were  smuggled  across  the  border  from 
Kimberley  to  Johannesburg,  to  be  in  readiness 
for  an  armed  uprising  of  the  foreigners  on  a  date 
to  be  agreed  upon.  Over  in  the  British  terri- 
tory of  Rhodesia,  Doctor  Jameson's  force — os- 
tensibly for  local  police  purposes — was  armed 
and  near  the  border,  ready  to  co-operate  with  the 
revolt  about  to  be  initiated  at  Johannesburg.  As 
a  provision  for  the  sustenance  of  the  invading 
force,  a  number  of  so-called  "canteens,"  said  to 
be  for  the  convenience  of  a  projected  stage  line, 
but  really  stores  of  food  for  Jameson's  troopers 
and  their  horses,  were  established  at  convenient 
distances  along  the  road  over  which  the  force 
was  to  advance  upon  Johannesburg. 


SECOND    war:      its    causes  211 

At  the  same  time,  the  official  opening  of  the 
new  railway  from  Pretoria  to  Delagoa  Bay  was 
made  the  occasion  of  such  marked  congratula- 
tion from  the  Imperial  Government  as  implied 
nothing  but  the  most  friendly  relations.  After- 
wards the  Africanders  held  that  the  Imperial  con- 
gratulations were  sincere,  and  that  the  fact  of 
their  being  sent  was  evidence  that  the  policy  of 
implacable  hostility  toward  the  South  African 
Republic  being  pursued  by  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  was 
in  no  sense  the  policy  of  the  British  government. 

It  is  almost  past  belief,  however,  that  so  small 
a  matter  as  the  closing  of  a  ford,  or  ''drift," 
across  the  Vaal  River  could  be  made  the  subject 
of  international  dispute,  and  become  the  cause 
of  ill-will  between  two  nations  on  terms  of  perfect 
amity  and  good  will ;  but  so  it  was.  In  a  rate 
war  between  the  Cape  Government  Railway  sys- 
tem and  the  Transvaal  Railway  Company,  in 
order  to  force  the  hand  of  the  Transvaal  Com- 
pany, the  Cape  authorities  adopted  the  practice 
of  unloading  freight  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Vaal,  on  Free  State  soil,  and  sending  it  on  by 
ox-wagons  across  the  "drift"  and  so  transporting 
it  over  the  more  than  fifty  miles  to  Johannes- 
burg— this  to  deprive  the  Transvaal  section  of 
the  through  railway  of  the  carrying  trade  from 


212  THE    AFRICANDERS 

the  border  to  Johannesburg  until  it  submitted  to 
a  certain  prescribed  rate.  In  order  to  protect  a 
railway  enterprise  in  which  it  was  a  partner,  the 
Transvaal  government  promptly  proclaimed  the 
"drift"  closed  to  traffic.  The  Cape  government 
then  complained  to  the  imperial  authorities,  and 
obtained  from  the  Colonial  Office  a  decision  that 
the  closing  of  the  "drift"  was  a  breach  of  the 
London  Convention,  of  1884,  and  must  be  re- 
versed. To  avoid  trouble  over  so  paltry  a  mat- 
ter the  Transvaal  government  withdrew  the  proc- 
lamation, but  there  was  bitter  feeling  occasioned 
by  this  interference,  naturally  in  inverse  ratio  to 
the  petty  cause  of  it.  The  resentment  was  as 
widespread  as  the  two  Africander  Republics.  It 
was  this  incident,  together  with  the  Jameson  raid 
of  a  few  months  later,  that  decided  the  Free  State 
to  dissolve  all  partnership  with  Cape  Colony  as 
to  railway  interests,  and  to  use  its  option  of  buy- 
ing the  Free  State  section  of  this  trunk  line  at 
cost  price.  As  this  was  the  most  profitable  part 
of  the  whole  system,  the  Cape  government  was  a 
heavy  loser — to  the  extent  of  7  per  cent  out  of 
II  per  cent  profits  previously  derived  from  the 
road ; — but  if  the  ultimate  object  sought  by  those 
who   directed   the   movement   was   to  create   a 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  213 

strong  prejudice  in  England  against  the  Trans- 
vaal government,  it  was  gained. 

As  time  went  on  preparations  for  the  contem- 
plated uprising  were  matured.  Ostensibly  to 
participate  in  the  taking  over  of  the  Bechuana- 
land  Protectorate  Doctor  Jameson  and  his  police 
were  brought  down  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Trans- 
vaal frontier.  Simultaneously,  mutterings  of 
the  coming  earthquake — as  it  was  intended  to 
be — began  to  be  heard.  At  the  meeting  of  the 
Johannesburg  Chamber  of  Mines,  held  on  the 
20th  of  November,  1895,  Mr.  Lionel  Phillips,  in 
an  incendiary  speech,  declared  that  "capital  was 
always  on  the  side  of  order,  but  there  was  a  limit 
to  endurance,  though  there  was  nothing  further 
from  their  desires  than  an  upheaval  which  would 
end  in  bloodshed."  How  this  was  understood, 
even  in  Europe,  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
reference  to  it  in  a  letter  from  a  gentleman  in 
Hamburg,  written  on  the  6th  of  December,  and 
quoted  by  Mr.  Statham  in  his  "South  Africa  as 
It  Is" : 

"Master  Lionel's  speech  has  been  very  fool- 
ish, and  is  likely  to  do  a  great  deal  of  harm  and 
no  good — unless  his  instructions  are  to  incite  to 
bloodshed — and  I  can  scarcely  imagine  such  in- 
structions to  have  gone  out  while  the  boom  is 


214  THE    AFRICANDERS 

lasting.  If  there  is  anything  that  is  likely  to  put 
Paul  Kruger's  back  up,  it  is  threats ;  and  unless 
Cecil  Rhodes  is  prepared  to  back  up  with  his 
Matabele  heroes  those  threats,  you  will  find  the 
Volksraad  of  1896  give  an  unmistakable  answer 
to  what  they  will  wrongly  call  'British  threats.'  " 

How  the  real  state  of  things  was  compre- 
hended locally  is  evinced  in  the  answer  to  that 
letter,  dated  December  the  loth : 

"Your  remark  concerning  Rhodes'  Matabele 
heroes  is  probably  more  prophetic  than  you  your- 
self are  aware  of.  South  Africa  is,  as  you  say, 
the  land  of  surprises." 

Among  the  parties  privy  to  the  conspiracy  the 
date  of  uprising  was  spoken  of  as  the  "day  of 
flotation."  It  was  carefully  discussed,  as  was  the 
use  that  could  be  made  of  the  British  crown  of- 
ficials at  the  Cape.  Arms  and  ammunition  for 
the  use  of  the  revolutionists  continued  to  arrive 
at  Johannesburg,  concealed  in  coal  trucks  and 
oil  tanks.  It  looked  like  an  appointment  when, 
on  the  2 1  St  of  December,  Colonel  Rhodes, 
brother  and  representative  of  Cecil  Rhodes  at 
Johannesburg,  telegraphed  to  the  Cape  that  a 
high  official,  whom  he  called  the  "Chairman," 
should  interfere  at  the  earliest  possible  moment, 
and  that  he  and  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  should  start 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  215 

from  Cape  Town  for  Johannesburg  on  the  "day 
of  flotation." 

This  telegram  has  been  interpreted  to  mean 
that  the  conspirators  wanted  to  create  just 
enough  of  disturbance  to  justify  alarming  tele- 
grams and  calls  for  help,  but  not  so  prolonged 
and  violent  as  to  make  it  necessary  for  them  to 
lead  a  hand-to-hand  fight  against  the  burghers 
in  the  streets  of  Johannesburg.  They  would  have 
the  Jameson  force  near  enough  to  take  the  brunt 
of  the  fighting,  and  the  High  Commissioner  to 
come  in  opportunely  to  mediate  a  peace  favor- 
ing the  re-establishment  of  British  control  in  the 
Transvaal. 

Strangely  enough,  at  the  last  moment  divi- 
sions arose  among  the  local  -conspirators  at  Jo- 
hannesburg; they  hesitated,  and  were  lost.  To 
some,  the  project  which  had  been  much  talked 
of — that  of  re-establishing  British  rule — became 
suddenly  distasteful,  the  principal  reason  being 
that  the  desired  control  of  capital  over  legislation 
could  not  be  as  complete  under  British  colonial 
administration  as  it  might  be  made  under  some 
other  regime.  They  had  appealed  to  the  senti- 
ment of  British  loyalty  in  persuading  English  re- 
cruits to  enter  their  ranks,  but  they  began  to  see 
that  this  sentiment,  carried  to  its  legitimate  frui- 


2l6  THE    AFRICANDERS 

tion,  would  defeat  the  chief  end  of  the  capitalists 
in  seeking  the  overthrow  of  the  Kruger  govern- 
ment. Christmas  day  of  1895  found  the  Jo- 
hannesburg reformers  so  divided  in  feeling  that 
most  of  them  were  in  favor  of  postponing  all  ac- 
tion until  some  definite  assurance  could  be  ob- 
tained as  to  what,  and  for  whom,  they  were  to 
fight.  To  this  end  the  President  of  the  National 
Union,  Mr.  Charles  Leonard,  was  sent  oflf  to 
Cape  Town  to  confer  with  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes. 

In  enlisting  Doctor  Jameson  and  his  police 
force  in  this  movement  an  uncertain  and  danger- 
ous factor  had  been  included.  The  situation  be- 
came critical.  Jameson,  who  had  been  warned 
that  he  must  on  no  account  make  any  move  un- 
til he  received  further  orders,  grew  restive  and 
eager  for  the  fray.  In  Johannesburg  the  con- 
spirators were  in  a  state  of  indecision  and  alarm, 
Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  himself  was  halting  between 
the  two  opinions,  whether  to  abandon  the  enter- 
prise altogether  or  to  precipitate  the  struggle  re- 
gardless of  the  divided  counsels  at  Johannesburg. 

Then  the  factor  of  danger  declared  itself.  On 
the  night  of  the  29th  of  December,  1895,  Doctor 
Jameson  broke  his  tether  and,  presumably  with- 
out orders,  invaded  the  territory  of  the  South 
African  Republic  from  the  British  territory  of 


SECOND   war:      its    CAUSES  21/ 

Bechuanaland,  at  the  head  of  about  six  hundred 
men. 

Just  why  Jameson  moved  at  that  time  prob- 
ably never  will  be  known.  He  has  himself  as- 
sumed the  entire  responsibility;  Mr.  Rhodes  and 
Sir  Hercules  Robinson,  the  High  Commissioner, 
have  disavowed  it  utterly.  There  are  few  who 
believe  that  his  invasion  was  intended  to  initiate 
the  revolution.  A  probable  solution  of  the  mys- 
tery is  that  the  revolutionary  programme  in- 
cluded (i)  a  collision  between  the  conspirators 
in  Johannesburg  and  the  burgher  police,  (2)  the 
calling  in  of  the  High  Commissioner,  Sir  Her- 
cules Robinson,  as  mediator,  (3)  the  ordering  up 
of  Jameson  and  his  force  to  support  the  High 
Commissioner  in  any  course  he  might  decide 
upon,  and  that  Jameson  thought  he  could  time 
his  arrival  aright  without  waiting  for  further 
orders. 

But  the  skillfully  arranged  programme  was 
spoiled  by  the  shrewdness  of  President  Kruger. 
There  was  no  initial  conflict  in  the  streets  of  Jo- 
hannesburg. Penetrating  the  design,  the  presi- 
dent withdrew  all  the  Transvaal  police  from  the 
streets  of  the  city ;  there  was  no  one  to  exchange 
shots  with,  and  therefore  no  reason  to  justify  a 
call  for  outside  interference. 


2l8  THE    AFRICANDERS 

By  cutting  the  telegraph  wires  Jameson  made 
it  impossible  for  friend  or  foe  to  know  his  where- 
abouts, but  the  report  got  abroad  that  he  was 
coming.  In  Johannesburg  some  desired,  some 
feared,  his  coming.  A  member  of  the  committee 
of  the  National  Union  assembled  a  hundred  of  the 
malcontents  and  attempted  to  lead  them  out  to 
co-operate  with  the  invaders,  but  they  tamely  sur- 
rendered to  a  burgher  force  without  firing  a  shot. 
As  for  Jameson,  on  Wednesday,  the  ist  of  Jan- 
uary, 1896,  he  was  checked  near  Krugersdorp 
by  a  few  hundred  burghers  hastily  collected,  and 
on  the  next  day  was  surrounded  near  Doornkop 
and  forced  to  surrender.  Thus  ended  the  attempt 
at  revolution. 

During  the  few  days  which  closed  1895  and 
opened  1896,  thefe  was  a  state  of  social,  political 
and  financial  chaos  in  Johannesburg.  All  that  was 
left  visible  of  the  reform  association  was  confined 
within  the  walls  of  a  single  clubhouse — a  resort 
of  the  leading  spirits  in  the  conspiracy.  The 
European  population  at  large  seemed  to  be  un- 
aware of  anything  connected  with  the  affair  but 
the,  to  them^  unaccountable  situation — full  of 
peril  to  life  and  property — ^which  had  been  cre- 
ated they  knew  not  how.  The  state  of  panic  was 
sustained  and  intensified  by  the  wildest  rumors  of 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  219 

what  Jameson  was  to  do,  of  thousands  of  burgh- 
ers assembhng  to  lay  siege  to  the  town,  of  a  pur- 
pose to  bombard  the  city  from  the  forts,  of  a 
new  government  about  to  be  proclaimed — in- 
deed, anything  and  everything  might  happen. 

When  it  leaked  out  that  the  principal  actors 
in  the  revolutionary  movement  had  secretly  re- 
moved their  families  from  the  city — which  was 
to  be  the  storm-center  of  the  expected  disturb- 
ance— there  was  a  general  stampede.  Men  and 
women  fought  for  place  on  the  outgoing  trains. 
In  one  tragical  instance  an  overladen  train  left 
the  track,  and  forty  persons,  mostly  women  and 
children,  perished.  To  exaggerate  the  misery 
and  disaster  to  innocent  and  peaceable  people, 
caused  by  this  unfortunate  and  abortive  uprising, 
would  be  impossible. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  raid  was  most 
unfavorable  to  the  return  of  anything  like  good 
feeling  between  the  British  and  the  Africanders. 
The  historic  cablegram  of  the  German  Emperor 
to  President  Kruger,  congratulating  him  on  the 
prompt  and  easy  suppression  of  the  rebellion, 
was  construed  as  evidence  that  the  South  African 
Republic  was  secretly  conniving  at  a  German 
rivalry  to  Great  Britain  as  the  paramount  power 
in   South    Africa.     On   the   other   hand,    every 


220  THE   AFRICANDERS 

burgher  in  the  Transvaal  saw  in  the  conspiracy 
a  new  indication  of  the  inexorable  hostility  of 
the  British  to  their  independence,  and  of  a  relent- 
less purpose  to  subvert  it  again  by  any  means 
necessary  to  accomplish  their  end,  however  un- 
just or  violent.  The  efifect  on  the  burghers  of 
the  raid  was  much  the  same  as  that  of  the  blow- 
ing up  of  the  Maine  on  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States — a  feeling  that  relations  had  been  created 
which  nothing  could  finally  adjust  but  war. 

Notwithstanding  the  intensified  bitterness  be- 
tween the  two  peoples,  no  one  was  put  to  death, 
nor  was  any  one  very  seriously  punished  for  tak- 
ing up  arms  against  the  Transvaal  government. 
This  is  to  be  credited  not  to  any  doubt  or  extenu- 
ation of  their  guilt,  but  to  urgent  intercession  on 
the  part  of  the  British  authorities,  and  to  the 
wisdom  of  those  who  administered  the  govern- 
ment whose  territory  had  been  invaded  from  the 
soil  of  a  professedly  friendly  nation,  whose  very 
existence  had  been  conspired  against  by  resident 
aliens,  and  which  had  in  its  power  both  the  in- 
vaders and  the  resident  conspirators. 


SECOND    war:      its    causes  221 


CHAPTER  XV. 

CAUSES    OF    THE    AFRICAXDERS'    SECOND    WAR    OF 
INDEPENDENCE. — CONTINUED. 

After  the  conspiracy  and  raid  of  1895- 1896 
the  peace  of  South  Africa  and  the  final  para- 
mountcy  of  Great  Britain  therein  by  the  mere 
force  of  a  superior  civiHzation  and  of  prepon- 
derating financial  and  diplomatic  resources,  de- 
pended upon  a  policy  which  was  not  followed. 

If  the  British  authorities  had  eliminated  Mr. 
Cecil  Rhodes  and  his  schemes  from  the  situation, 
and  had  sufifered  matters  in  South  Africa  to  re- 
turn to  the  state  which  prevailed  in  1887,  the  end 
would  have  been  different,  and  better.  At  that 
time  the  country  was  being  allowed  to  move  in 
an  unforced  way  toward  a  destiny  of  settled 
peace  between  the  two  races.  A  genuine  but 
unaggressive  loyalty  in  the  British  colonies  was 
beginning  to  develop  a  reciprocal  good  will  on 
the  part  of  the  two  republics,  giving  promise  of 
a  pleasant  fellowship  of  nations  in  South  Africa. 


222  THE    AFRICANDERS 

The  result  would  not  have  been  a  confeder- 
ated South  Africa  under  the  British  crown ;  that 
was  and  is  impossible,  both  for  geographical  and 
political  reasons.  But  there  might  have  been 
brought  about  acquaintanceship  and  mutual 
esteem  between  Great  Britain,  the  would-be 
Paramount  Power,  and  the  Africander  race 
throughout  the  Transvaal,  the  Orange  Free 
State,  and  the  British  colonies  of  Natal  and  the 
Cape — which  race  is  and  will  long  continue  to 
be  the  dominant  factor  in  South  Africa.  Out 
of  that  friendly  relationship  might  have  come  a 
paramount  power  to  Great  Britain  well  worth  the 
having,  and  in  every  way  consistent  with  the 
honor  of  the  British  crown  and  the  continued  in- 
dependence of  the  Africander  republics. 

But  Mr.  Rhodes  and  his  projects  were  not 
eliminated  from,  the  situation.  By  force  of  al- 
most unequalcd  genius  for  acquisition  and  in- 
trigue, and  of  great  powers  in  no  least  degree 
controlled  by  moral  considerations,  he  continued 
to  dominate — both  locally  and  in  England — the 
British  policy  in  South  Africa.  His  presence 
and  influence  made  final  peace  in  the  country 
impossible  on  any  condition  other  than  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  Africander  Republics.  Probably 
two-thirds  of  the  European  population  of  South 


SECOND  war:    its  causes  223 

Africa  believed  that  he  was  the  chief  criminal — 
though  unpunished — in  connection  with  the  con- 
spiracy and  raid  of  1895-1896.  His  influence, 
therefore,  had  the  efifect  of  intensifying  the  race 
enmities,  already  the  too  vigorous  growth  of  a 
century,  and  of  warning  every  Africander  in  the 
two  republics  to  stand  armed  and  ready  to  de- 
fend the  independence  of  his  country.  And 
these  men,  to  whom  Mr.  Rhodes'  presence  and 
activities  were  a  constant  irritation  and  threat, 
loved  freedom  after  the  fashion  of  their  Nether- 
land  forefathers  who  worsted  Spain  in  diplomacy 
and  war  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  after  the 
fashion  of  their  Huguenot  forefathers  who 
counted  no  sacrifice  too  great  to  make  for  liberty. 
During  1896  there  was  a  temporary  lull  in 
the  agitation  for  reforms  in  the  Transvaal.  In- 
vestigations had  become  an  international  neces- 
sity, for  appearance's  sake  if  for  no  other  reason ; 
but  they  led  to  nothing  except  the  rehabilitation 
of  the  principal  leaders  in  the  conspiracy  which 
had  miscarried.  Of  necessity  Doctor  Jameson, 
and  his  immediate  associates  in  conducting  the 
invasion,  were  condemned  to  death  by  the  Trans- 
vaal authorities,  for  they  were  taken  in  the  act, 
and   confessed   themselves   guilty   of   a   capital 


224  THE    AFRICANDERS 

crime.  After  a  time  the  death  sentences  were 
reversed,  and  the  offenders  were  set  free. 

By  the  opening  of  1897  a  good  degree  of  order 
had  replaced  the  state  of  chaos  into  which  the 
uprising  had  thrown  the  foreign  population  and 
interests  in  the  Transvaal.  Then  the  agitation 
for  reforms  was  renewed,  and  the  claims  of  the 
foreigners  were  backed  up  and  pressed  diplo- 
matically by  the  British  government,  of  which 
the  exponent  in  the  long  controversy  was  the 
Hon.  Joseph  Chamberlain,  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Colonies. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  trace,  step  by  step,  the 
diplomatic  correspondence  on  the  subject  of  re- 
forms in  the  Transvaal  during  1897,  1898  and 
the  first  two  months  of  1899.  The  whole  situa- 
tion— including  every  subject  in  dispute  between 
the  two  governments — will  come  into  view  in 
the  discussions  and  negotiations  immediately 
preceding  the  outbreak  of  the  Africanders'  Sec- 
ond War  of  Independence,  in  October,  1899. 

On  the  20th  of  March,  1899,  in  reply  to  a 
question  by  Sir  E.  Ashmead  Bartlett  as  to  Great 
Britain's  right  to  interfere  with  the  affairs  of  the 
South  African  Republic,  Mr.  Chamberlain,  from 
his  place  in  parliament,  said : 


;i:.\ERAL  cRu\j|.:. 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  225 

"There  are  certain  cases  where  we  can  inter- 
vene, and  rightly  intervene,  in  Transvaal  affairs. 

"i.  In  the  first  place,  we  may  intervene  if 
there  is  any  breach  of  the  convention. 

"2.  There  is  no  doubt  we  should  have  the 
usual  right  of  interference  if  *  *  *  ^he 
treatment  of  British  subjects  in  the  Transvaal 
was  of  such  nature  as  would  give  us  the  right  to 
interfere  as  to  the  treatment  of  British  subjects 
in  France  or  Germany. 

"3.  Then  there  is  only  one  other  case — the 
third  case.  We  can  make  friendly  recommenda- 
tions to  the  Transvaal  for  the  benefit  of  South 
Africa  generally  and  in  the  interests  of  peace." 

In  concluding  Mr.  Chamberlain  said :  "I  do 
not  feel  at  the  moment  that  any  case  has  arisen 
which  would  justify  me  in  taking  the  strong  ac- 
tion suggested" ;  the  reference  being  to  the  send- 
ing of  an  ultimatum. 

The  next  important  development  was  a  pe- 
tition to  the  Imperial  Government,  signed  by  21,- 
684  British  subjects  in  the  Transvaal,  praying  for 
interference  in  their  behalf.  This  was  forwarded 
through  Mr.  Conyngham  Greene,  the  British 
agent  at  Pretoria,  to  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  Governor 
of  Cape  Colony,  who  transmitted  it  to  London, 


15 


226  THE    AFRICANDERS 

where  it  was  received  by  Mr.  Chamberlain  on  the 
14th  of  April. 

Summarized,  the  complaints  of  the  petition- 
ers were  as  follows : 

1.  The  great  majority  of  the  uitlander  popu- 
lation consists  of  British  subjects  who  have  no 
share  in  the  government. 

2.  Petitions  of  the  uitlanders  to  the  Trans- 
vaal government  have  either  failed  or  have  been 
scornfully  rejected. 

3.  Instead  of  redressing  uitlander  grievances, 
the  Transvaal  government,  after  the  Jameson 
raid,  passed  laws  making  their  positiqn  more  irk- 
some— i.  e.,  the  immigration  of  aliens  act,  the 
press  law,  the  aliens  expulsion  law.  The  immi- 
gration act  was  suspended  at  the  insistence  of 
the  British  government,  but  the  others  remain  in 
force. 

4.  The  Transvaal  government  exercises  the 
power  of  suppressing  publications  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  British  uitlanders. 

5.  British  subjects  are  expelled  from  the 
Transvaal  without  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  high 
court. 

6.  The  promise  of  municipal  government  for 
the  city  of  Johannesburg  has  been  kept  In  ap- 
pearance only.     There  are  1,039  burghers  resi- 


SECOND    WAR  :       ITS    CAUSES  2.2J 

dent  of  Johannesburg,  and  23,503  uitlanders,  but 
the  law  giving  each  ward  of  the  city  two  mem- 
bers of  the  council  also  requires  that  one  of  them 
must  be  a  burgher,  and  the  Burgomaster,  who 
is  appointed  by  the  government,  has  the  casting 
vote. 

7.  The  city  of  Johannesburg  is  menaced  by 
forts  occupied  by  strong  Boer  garrisons. 

8.  The  uitlanders  of  Johannesburg  are  de- 
nied the  right  to  police  their  own  city. 

9.  Trial  by  jury  is  a  farce,  as  uitlanders  can 
be  tried  by  burghers  only. 

10.  The  uitlanders  are  deprived  of  political 
representation;  are  taxed  beyond  the  require- 
ments of  the  Transvaal  government. 

11.  The  education  of  uitlander  children  is 
made  subject  to  impossible  conditions. 

12.  The  Boer  police  give  no  protection  to 
lives  and  property  in  the  city  of  Johannesburg. 

It  will  be  noted  that  this  petition,  dealing  with 
political  and  other  grievances,  makes  no  men- 
tion of  the  dynamite  monopoly,  extortionate 
railway  charges,  burdensome  tariffs  on  imported 
foodstuffs,  and  other  industrial  and  commercial 
grievances  of  which  complaints  had  been  made 
at  an  earlier  date.  And  in  judging  of  this  list  of 
complaints  it  should  be  considered  that,  with  the 


228  THE    AFRICANDERS 

exception  of  the  eleventh,  concerning  the  edu- 
cation of  children — which  is  fatally  indefinite  in 
expression — most  of  the  conditions  complained 
of  are  exactly  such  as  would  be  imposed  on  a 
city  lately  in  insurrection,  and  yet  inhabited  by 
the  same  persons  who  had  conspired  to  over- 
throw the  government. 

The  dangerous  tension  already  existing  was 
greatly  heightened  by  a  long  telegraphic  com- 
munication from  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  Governor  of 
Cape  Colony,  to  Mr.  Chamberlain,  on  the  5th 
of  May.  After  reviewing  the  situation,  and  re- 
iterating the  grievances  which  British  subjects 
were  said  to  be  suffering,  and  declaring  that  the 
spectacle  presented  ''does  steadily  undermine  the 
influence  and  reputation  of  Great  Britain,"  Sir 
Alfred  revealed  the  true  inwardness  of  the  strug- 
gle already  begun  between  the  Africanders  and 
the  British  by  saying : 

"A  certain  section  of  the  press,  not  in  the 
Transvaal  only,  preaches  openly  and  constantly 
the  doctrine  of  a  republfc  embracing  all  South 
Africa,  and  supports  it  by  menacing  references 
to  the  armaments  of  the  Transvaal,  its  alliance 
with  the  Orange  Free  State,  and  the  active  sym- 
pathy which  in  case  of  war  it  would  receive  from 
a  section  of  her  Majesty's  subjects.  , 


.   SECOND  war:    its  causes  229 

"I  can  see  nothing  which  will  put  a  stop  to 
this  mischievous  propaganda  but  some  striking 
proof  of  the  intention  of  her  Majesty's  govern- 
ment not  to  be  ousted  from  its  position  in  South 
Africa." 

Sir  Alfred's  reference  in  the  last  two  para- 
graphs is  to  the  "Africander  Bund,"  a  society 
whose  ramifications  were  to  be  found  throughout 
Natal,  Cape  Colony,  and,  indeed,  wherever  mem- 
bers of  the  Africander  race  were  to  be  found. 

He  that  runneth  may  read  and  understand 
these  luminous  words  in  Sir  Alfred  Milner's  dis- 
patch. The  coming  struggle  was  not  to  be  about 
some  foreigners  in  the  Transvaal,  but  to  defeat, 
in  time,  the  republican  aspirations  of  the  whole 
Africander  race,  including  those  in  the  two  re- 
publics already  established  and  "a  section  of  her 
Majesty's  subjects"  in  the  British  territories  of 
Natal  and  Cape  Colony ;  and  the  issue  was  under- 
stood to  be  either  "a.  republic  embracing  all 
South  Africa" — involving  the  expulsion  of  the 
British  government  "from  its  position  in  South 
Africa" — or  the  defeat  of  those  aspirations  in  the 
establishing  of  a  confederated  South  Afrioa  un- 
der the  British  crown. 

In  the  light  of  Sir  Alfred's  dispatch  one  ceases 
to  wonder  that  all  negotiations  about  the  uit- 


230  THE    AFRICANDERS 

lander  grievances,  and  that  the  repeated  conces- 
sions as  to  the  franchise  offered  by  the  Transvaal, 
were  without  effect.  It  is  evident  that  both  par- 
ties saw  inevitable  war  approaching  on  quite  an- 
other and  a  much  larger  question. 

The  response  of  the  British  government  to 
the  uitlanders'  petition,  and  to  Sir  Alfred  Milner's 
appeal  for  intervention,  was  a  suggestion  that 
President  Kruger  and  Sir  Alfred  Milner  should 
meet  at  Pretoria  and  confer  concerning  the  chief 
matters  in  dispute  between  the  two  governments. 
Afterward,  upon  the  invitation  of  Mr.  Steyn, 
president  of  the  Orange  Free  State,  it  was  de- 
cided to  hold  the  conference  at  Bloemfontein,  the 
capital  of  the  Free  State  Republic.  In  accepting 
the  invitation  to  this  conference  in  a  telegram 
dated  the  17th  of  May,  Mr.  Kruger  said : 

"I  remain  disposed  to  come  to  Bloemfontein 
and  will  gladly  discuss  every  proposal  in  a 
friendly  way  that  can  conduce  to  a  good  under- 
standing between  the  South  African  Republic 
and  England,  and  to  the  maintenance  of  peace 
in  South  Africa,  provided  that  the  independence 
of  this  republic  is  not  impugned." 

The  date  selected  for  the  first  meeting  be- 
tween Mr.  Kruger  and"  Sir  Alfred  was  the  31st  of 
May.     On  the  226.  Sir  Alfred  telegraphed  Mr. 


SECOND  war:     its  causes      -       231 

Chamberlain  asking  for  final  instructions  to 
guide  him  in  the  approaching  conference,  and 
outlining  his  own  views  of  the  situation  thus : 

"It  is  my  own  inclination  to  put  in  the  fore- 
ground the  question  of  the  uitlanders'  grievances, 
treating  it  as  broadly  as  possible,  and  insisting 
that  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  relieve  the  situa- 
tion, that  uitlanders  should  obtain  some  substan- 
tial degree  of  representation  by  legislation  to  be 
passed  this  session.  Following  would  be  the 
general  line : 

"Franchise  after  six  years,  retroactive,  and  at 
least  seven  members  for  the  Rand"  (the  mining 
district).  "Present  number  of  Volksraad  of 
South  Africa  being  twenty-eight,  this  would 
make  one-fifth  of  it  uitlander  members. 

"If  President  Kruger  will  not  agree  to  any- 
thing like  this,  I  should  try  municipal  govern- 
ment for  the  whole  Rand  as  an  alternative,  with 
wide  powers,  including  control  of  police. 

"If  he  rejects  this,  too,  I  do  not  see  much  use 
in  discussing  the  various  outstanding  questions 
between  the  two  governments  in  detail,  such 
as  dynamite,  violations  of  Zululand  boundary, 
'Critic'  case,  Cape  boys  and  Indians,  though 
it  would  be  desirable  to  allude  to  them  in  course 


232        •  THE    AFRICANDERS 

of  discussion,  and  point  out  the  gravity  of  having 
so  many  subjects  of  dispute  unsettled." 

In  a  telegram,  dated  the  24th  of  May,  Mr. 
Chamberlain  instructed  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  in 
part,  as  follows : 

"I  think  personally  you  should  lay  all  stress 
on  the  question  of  franchise  in  first  instance. 
Other  reforms  are  less  pressing  and  will  come  in 
time  if  this  can  be  arranged  satisfactorily  and 
form  of  oath  modified.  Redistribution  is  rea- 
sonable, and  you  might  accept  a  moderate  con- 
cession. 

"If  fair  terms  of  franchise  are  refused  by 
President  Kruger  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to 
bring  forward  other  matters,  such  as  aliens,  col- 
ored people,  education,  dynamite,  etc.,  at  the  con- 
ference, and  the  whole  situation  must  be  recon- 
sidered." 

On  the  31st  of  May,  1899,  Sir  Alfred  Milner 
and  President  Kruger  met  in  conference  at 
Bloemfontein.  Their  negotiations  form  one  of 
the  most  interesting  features  of  the  controversy 
between  the  two  governments.  The  results  of 
the  conference,  in  brief,  were  as  follows.  For 
the  uitlanders,  Sir  Alfred  demanded  that: 

"Every  foreigner  who  can  prove  satisfactorily 
that  he  has  been  a  resident  in  the  country  for  five 


SECOND    WAR  :      ITS    CAUSES  233 

years ;  that  he  desires  to  make  it  his  permanent 
place  of  residence;  that  he  is  prepared  to  take 
the  oath  to  obey  the  laws,  to  undertake  all  obli- 
gations of  citizenship,  and  to  defend  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  country;  should  be  allowed  to 
become  a  citizen  on  taking  that  oath." 

Sir  Alfred  Milner  modified  these  proposals  by 
suggesting  that  the  franchise  be  restricted  to  per- 
sons possessing  a  specific  amount  of  property  or 
of  yearly  wages,  and  who  have  good  characters. 
He  asked,  further,  that  "in  order  to  make  that 
proposal  of  any  real  use  for  the  new  citizens,  who 
mostly  live  in  one  district,  *  *  *  there 
should  be  a  certain  number  of  new  constituencies 
created,"  and  that  "the  number  of  these  dis- 
tricts should  not  be  so  small  as  to  leave  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  new  population  in  a  con- 
temptible minority." 

President  Kruger  did  not  accept  Sir  Alfred's 
proposals,  and  submitted  counter  proposals  as 
follows : 

"i.  Every  person  who  fixes  his  residence  in 
the  South  African  Republic  has  to  get  himself 
registered  on  the  Field  Cornet's  books  within 
fourteen  days  after  his  arrival,  according  to  the 
existing  law.  He  will  be  able  after  complying 
with  the  conditions  under  'A'  and  after  the  lapse 


234  THE    AFRICANDERS 

of  two  years  to  get  himself  naturalized,  and  will, 

five  years  after  naturalization,  on  complying  with 

the  conditions  under  'B,'  obtain  the  full  franchise. 

"A. 

"i.  Six  months'  notice  of  intention  to  apply 
for  naturalization.  2.  Two  years'  continuous  res- 
idence. 3.  Residence  in  the  South  African  Re- 
public during  that  time.  4.  No  dishonoring  sen- 
tence. 5.  Proof  of  obedience  to  laws;  no  act 
against  the  government  or  independence.  6. 
Proof  of  full  state  citizenship  and  franchise  or 
title  thereto  in  former  country.  7.  Possession  of 
unmortgaged  property  to  the  value  of  £150;  or 
occupation  of  house  to  the  rental  of  £50  per  an- 
num ;  or  yearly  income  of  at  least  £200.  Noth- 
ing, however,  shall  prevent  the  government  from 
granting  naturalization  to  persons  who  have  not 
satisfied  this  condition.  8.  Taking  of  an  oath 
similar  to  that  of  the  Orange  Free  State. 
"B. 

"i.  Continuous  registration  for  five  years 
after  naturalization.  2.  Continuous  residence 
during  that  period.  3.  No  dishonoring  sentence. 
4.  Proof  of  obedience  to  laws.  5.  Proof  that  ap- 
plicant still  complies  with  the  condition  of  A  7." 

In  a  memorandum  which  is  a  part  of  the  rec- 
ords of  the  conference  Sir  Alfred  Milner  admitted 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  ^35 

that  President  Kruger's  proposals  were  "a  con- 
siderable advance  upon  the  existing  provisions  as 
to  franchise."  But  he  intimated  that  they  stopped 
far  short  of  the  solution  he  had  suggested,  and 
which,  he  said,  "alone  appeared  to  be  adequate  to 
the  needs  of  the  case."  He  also  declared  it  a 
waste  of  time  to  discuss  further  details ;  and  so 
the  conference  ended  in  failure. 

Notwithstanding  the  failure  of  the  confer- 
ence, the  Volksraad  of  the  South  African  Re- 
public passed  a  seven  years'  retroactive  franchise 
law  on  the  19th  of  July,  1899.  This  law  was 
somewhat  modified  from  the  proposals  submitted 
by  President  Kruger  at  the  conference.  It  also 
gave  the  uitlanders  additional  representation  in 
both  raads,  which  President  Kruger  announced 
on  the  27th  of  July  as  follows : 

"By  virtue  of  the  powers  conferred  upon  them 
the  Executive  Council  yesterday  decided  to  give 
three  new  members  in  each  Volksraad  for  the 
Witwatersrand  gold  fields.  That  is  to  say,  there 
are  at  present  two  members  for  both  raads ;  the 
number  will  be  increased  to  eight,  four  to  sit  in 
the  first  and  four  in  the  second  raad.  With  the 
De  Kaap  representative,  there  will  now  be  five 
members  to  represent  the  mining  industry  in  a 


236  THE    AFRICANDERS 

proposed  enlarged  legislature  of  thirty-one  mem- 
bers. 

In  London  it  was  believed  that  the  action  of 
the  Volksraad  was  a  long  stride  toward  a  peace- 
ful solution  of  the  difficulties.  In  the  House  of 
Commons  Mr.  Chamberlain,  after  reading  a  tele- 
gram from  Sir  Alfred  Milner  announcing  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Volksraad,  said  : 

"I  have  no  official  information  as  to  the  re- 
distribution, but  it  has  been  stated  that  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  South  African  Republic  proposes 
to  give  seven  new  seats  to  the  district  chiefly  in- 
habited by  aliens. 

"If  this  report  is  confirmed  this  important 
change  in  the  proposals  of  President  Kruger, 
coupled  with  previous  amendments,  leads  the 
government  to  hope  that  the  new  law  may  prove 
a  basis  of  a  settlement  on  the  lines  laid  down  by 
Sir  Alfred  Milner  at  the  Bloemfontein  confer- 
ence." 

But  somewhere  in  the  counsels  by  which  the 
British  authorities  acted  at  this  time  there  was  an 
element  of  suspicion  and  of  yet  unsatisfied  ag- 
gression, which  did  not  make  for  a  peaceful  set- 
tlement. After  the  Volksraad  of  the  South  Afri- 
can Republic  had  passed  the  seven  years'  fran- 
chise law,  together  with  enlarged  representation 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  237 

of  the  uitlanders  in  both  raads,  and  after  Mr. 
Chamberlain  had  made  his  hopeful  announce- 
ment in  the  House  of  Commons,  the  whole  sub- 
ject was  reopened  by  a  new  request.  The  Trans- 
vaal government  was  asked  to  agree  that  a  joint 
commission  of  inquiry,  made  up  of  expert  dele- 
gates representing  the  Transvaal  and  the  British 
government,  should  be  appointed  to  investigate 
the  exact  effect  of  the  new  franchise  law. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  this  request  fell  as 
a  shock  upon  a  government  which  had  received 
from  the  power  making  this  and  other  extraordi- 
nary demands  a  guaranty,  in  the  convention  of 
1884,  that  it  should  be  in  every  sense  independ- 
ent in  the  management  of  its  internal  afifairs.  On 
the  2 1  St  of  August  President  Kruger  formally 
declined  to  accede  to  the  request  for  a  joint  com- 
mittee to  investigate  the  efifect  of  the  new  fran- 
chise law,  and  submitted  an  alternative  proposi- 
tion :  The  South  African  Republic  would  give  a 
five  years'  retroactive  franchise,  eight  new  seats 
in  the  Volksraad  and  a  vote  for  President  and 
Commandant-General,  conditioned  upon  Great 
Britain  consenting : 

"i.  In  the  future  not  to  interfere  in  the  in- 
ternal affairs  of  the  Transvaal  Republic.    2.  Not 


238  THE    AFRICANDERS 

to  insist  further  on  its  assertion  of  the  existence 
of  suzerainty.    3.  To  agree  to  arbitration." 

In  a  dispatch  dated  the  2d  of  September,  1899, 
Mr.  Chamberlain,  having  rejected  President  Kru- 
ger's  alternative  proposals,  suggested  another 
conference,  to  be  held  at  Cape  Town,  and  ended 
with  the  significant  statement : 

"Her  Majesty's  government  also  desires  to 
remind  the  government  of  the  South  African  Re- 
public that  there  are  other  matters  of  difference 
between  the  two  governments  which  will  not  be 
settled  by  the  grant  of  political  representation  to 
the  uitlanders,  and  which  are  not  proper  subjects 
for  reference  to  arbitration." 

In  dispatches  printed  on  the  7th  of  September 
President  Kruger  signified  a  willingness  to  at- 
tend the  Cape  Town  conference,  and,  while  hold- 
ing that  no  good  could  come  of  a  joint  inquiry 
into  the  effect  of  the  new  franchise  law,  he  would 
agree  that  British  representatives  should  make 
an  independent  inquiry,  after  which  any  sugges- 
tions they  might  make  would  be  submitted  to  the 
raad.  Concerning  suzerainty  he  announced  the 
unalterable  purpose  of  his  people  to  adhere  abso- 
lutely to  the  convention  of  1884. 

On  the  8th  of  September  the  British  cabinet 
formulated  a  note  to  the  South  African  Republic 


SECOND  war:    its  causes  239 

very  much  in  the  nature  of  an  ultimatum,  refus- 
ing point  blank  to  entertain  the  proposal  that 
Great  Britain  should  relinquish  suzerainty  over 
the  Transvaal  and  pointedly  intimating  that  the 
offer  of  a  joint  inquiry  into  the  effect  of  the 
seven  years'  franchise  law  would  not  remain 
open  indefinitely. 

The  Transvaal's  rejoinder,  printed  unofiEi- 
cially  on  the  i6th  of  September,  announced  that 
the  South  African  Republic  withdrew  the  pro- 
posal to  give  a  five  years'  franchise,  that  it  would 
adhere  to  the  original  seven  years'  law  already 
passed  by  the  Volksraad,  and  that  it  would,  if 
necessary,  adopt  any  suggestions  Great  Britain 
might  make  with  reference  to  the  practical  work- 
ings of  the  law. 

On  the  25th  of  September,  after  three  days' 
consideration,  the  British  cabinet  gave  out  the 
text  of  another  note  to  the  South  African  Repub- 
lic, which  read  as  follows : 

"The  object  Her  Majesty's  government  had 
in  view  in  the  recent  negotiations  has  been  stated 
in  a  manner  which  cannot  admit  of  misunder- 
standing— viz. :  To  obtain  such  substantial  and 
immediate  representation  for  the  outlanders  as 
will  enable  them  to  secure  for  themselves  that  fair 
and  just  treatment  which  was  formally  promised 


^40  THE    AFRICANDERS 

them  in  1881,  and  which  Her  Majesty  intended 
to  secure  for  them  when  she  granted  privileges 
of  self-government  to  the  Transvaal. 

"No  conditions  less  comprehensive  than  those 
contained  in  the  telegram  of  September  8  can  be 
relied  on  to  effect  this  object. 

"The  refusal  of  the  South  African  govern- 
ment to  entertain  the  offer  thus  made — coming, 
as  it  does,  after  four  months  of  protracted  nego- 
tiations, themselves  the  climax  of  five  years  of 
extended  agitation — makes  it  useless  to  further 
pursue  the  discussion  on  the  lines  hitherto  fol- 
lowed, and  the  imperial  government  is  now  com- 
pelled to  consider  the  situation  afresh  and  formu- 
late its  own  proposals  for  a  final  settlement  of  the 
issues  which  have  been  created  in  South  Africa 
by  the  policy  constantly  followed  by  the  govern- 
ment of  South  Africa. 

"They  will  communicate  the  result  of  their 
deliberations  in  a  later  dispatch." 


is*!*   f 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  241 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

CAUSES  OF  THE  AERICANDERS    SECOND  WAE  OF  IN- 
DEPENDENCE.— CONCLUDED. 

The  "later  dispatch"  promised  by  the  British 
cabinet  was  never  sent.  The  answer  to  it  of  the 
Transvaal  government  was,  therefore,  delayed  for 
several  days,  awaiting  the  new  proposals  that 
were  to  come  as  the  result  of  further  deliberations 
on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  government.  At 
last,  on  the  eve  of  the  outbreak  of  war,  Mr. 
Chamberlain  gave  out,  on  the  loth  of  October, 
the  text  of  the  republic's  rejoinder  to  the  British 
cabinet's  note  of  the  25th  of  September.  It  was 
transmitted  by  cable,  through  Sir  Alfred  Milner, 
and  read  thus : 

"Dear  Sir:  The  government  of  the  South 
African  Republic  feels  itself  compelled  to  refer 
the  government  of  Her  Majesty,  Queen  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  once  more  to  the  convention 
of  London,  1884,  concluded  between  this  repub- 
lic and  the  United  Kingdom,  and  which,  in  Ar- 

16 


242  THE   AFRICANDERS 

tide  XIV.,  secures  certain  specific  rights  to  the 
white  population  of  this  repubUc — namely :  That 
all  persons  other  than  natives,  on  conforming 
themselves  to  the  laws  of  the  South  African  Re- 
public— 

"A — Will  have  full  liberty,  with  their  families, 
to  enter,  travel  or  reside  in  any  part  of  the  South 
African  Republic. 

"B — They  will  be  entitled  to  hire  or  possess 
houses,  manufactories,  warehouses,  shops  and 
other  premises. 

"C — They  may  carry  on  their  commerce 
either  in  person  or  by  any  agents  whom  they 
may  think  fit  to  employ, 

"D — They  shall  not  be  subject,  in  respect  of 
their  premises  or  property  or  in  respect  of  their 
commerce  and  industry,  to  any  taxes  other  than 
those  which  are  or  may  be  imposed  upon  the  cit- 
izens of  the  said  republic. 

"This  government  wishes  further  to  observe 
that  these  are  the  only  rights  which  Her  Maj- 
esty's government  has  reserved  in  the  above  con- 
vention with  regard  to  the  outlander  population 
of  this  republic,  and  that  a  violation  only  of  those 
rights  could  give  that  government  a  right  to 
diplomatic  representations  or  intervention ;  while, 
moreover,  the  regulation  of  all  other  questions 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  243 

affecting  the  position  of  the  rights  of  the  out- 
lander  population  under  the  above-mentioned 
convention  is  handed  over  to  the  government  and 
representatives  of  the  people  of  the  South  Afri- 
can Republic. 

"Among  the  questions  the  regulation  of  which 
falls  exclusively  within  the  competence  of  this 
government  and  of  the  Volksraad  are  included 
those  of  the  franchise  and  the  representation  of 
the  people  in  this  republic;  and,  although  this 
exclusive  right  of  this  government  and  of  the 
Volksraad  for  the  regulation  of  the  franchise  and 
the  representation  of  the  people  is  indisputable, 
yet  this  government  has  found  occasion  to  dis- 
cuss, in  friendly  fashion,  the  franchise  and  repre- 
sentation of  the  people  with  Her  Majesty's  gov- 
ernment— without,  however,  recognizing  any 
right  thereto  on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  gov- 
ernment. 

"This  government  has  also,  by  the  formula- 
tion of  the  now  existing  franchise  law  and  by  a 
resolution  with  regard  to  the  representation,  con- 
stantly held  these  friendly  discussions  before  its 
eyes.  On  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  government, 
however,  the  friendly  nature  of  these  discussions 
has  assumed  more  and  more  a  threatening  tone, 
and  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this  republic  and 


244  THE    AFRICANDERS 

the  whole  of  South  Africa  have  been  excited  and 
a  condition  of  extreme  tension  has  been  created, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  Her  Majesty's  government 
could  no  longer  agree  to  the  legislation  respect- 
ing the  franchise  and  the  resolution  respecting 
representation  in  this  republic,  and,  finally,  by 
your  note  of  Sept.  25,  1899,  which  broke  oflf  all 
friendly  correspondence  on  the  subject  and  inti- 
mated that  Her  Majesty's  government  must  now 
proceed  to  formulate  its  own  proposals  for  the 
final  settlement. 

"This  government  can  only  see  in  the  above 
intimation  from  Her  Majesty's  government  a 
new  violation  of  the  convention  of  London,  1884, 
which  does  not  reserve  to  Her  Majesty's  govern- 
ment the  right  to  a  unilateral  settlement  of  a 
question  which  is  exclusively  a  domestic  one  for 
this  government,  and  which  has  been  already  reg- 
ulated by  this  government. 

"On  account  of  the  strained  situation  and  the 
consequent  serious  loss  in  and  interruption  of 
trade  in  general,  which  the  correspondence  re- 
specting franchise  and  the  representation  of  the 
people  of  this  republic  has  carried  in  its  train. 
Her  Majesty's  government  has  recently  pressed 
for  an  early  settlement,  and  finally  pressed,  by 
your  intervention,  for  an  answer  v/ithin  forty- 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  245 

eight  hours,  a  demand  subsequently  somewhat 
modified,  to  your  note  of  September  12,  replied 
to  by  the  note  of  this  government  of  September 
15,  and  to  your  note  of  September  25,  1899,  and 
thereafter  further  friendly  negotiations  were 
broken  off,  this  government  receiving  an  intima- 
tion that  a  proposal  for  a  final  settlement  would 
shortly  be  made. 

"Although  this  promise  was  once  more  re- 
peated, the  proposal,  up  to  now,  has  not  reached 
this  government. 

"Even  while  this  friendly  correspondence  was 
still  going  on  the  increase  of  troops  on  a  large 
scale  was  introduced  by  Her  Majesty's  govern- 
ment, the  troops  being  stationed  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  borders  of  this  republic, 

"Having  regard  to  occurrences  in  the  history 
of  this  republic,  which  it  is  unnecessary  here  to 
call  to  mind,  this  republic  felt  obliged  to  regard 
this  military  force  in  the  neighborhood  of  its 
borders  as  a  threat  against  the  independence  of 
the  South  Afa-ican  Republic,  since  it  was  aware 
of  no  circumstances  which  could  justify  the  pres- 
ence of  such  a  military  force  in  South  Africa  and 
in  the  neighborhood  of  its  borders. 

"In  answer  to  an  inquiry  with  respect  thereto, 
addressed  to  His  Excellency,  the  High  Commis- 


246  THE   AFRICANDERS 

sioner,  this  government  received,  to  its  great  as- 
tonishment, in  answer  a  veiled  insinuation  that 
from  the  side  of  the  repubHc  an  attack  was  being 
made  on  Her  Majesty's  colonies,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  a  mysterious  reference  to  possibilities 
whereby  this  government  was  strengthened  in  its 
suspicion  that  the  independence  of  this  republic 
was  being  threatened. 

"As  a  defensive  measure  this  government 
was,  therefore,  obliged  to  send  a  portion  of  the 
burghers  of  this  republic  in  order  to  offer  requi- 
site resistance  to  similar  possibilities." 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  correspondence  that 
the  British  government  had  failed  to  send  the 
formulation  of  "its  own  proposals  for  a  final  set- 
tlement" promised  in  the  note  of  September  25, 
and  that  active  preparations  for  war,  even  to  tlie 
mobilization  of  troops,  had  been  going  on — on 
both  sides — for  some  weeks. 

On  the  7th  of  August,  forty-nine  days  before 
the  Britisii  cabinet  engaged  to  prolong  friendly 
diplomatic  correspondence  on  the  subjects  at 
issue  by  promising  a  later  dispatch  containing  its 
own  proposals  for  a  final  settlement,  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain delivered  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons which  has  become  historic — a  speech  which 
signified  past  all  possibility  of  mistake  that  at 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  247 

that  early  date  war  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 
After  deprecating  the  use  of  the  word  "war"  un- 
less it  were  absolutely  necessary,  he  went  on  to 
say: 

"The  government  had  stated  that  they  recog- 
nized the  grievances  under  which  their  subjects 
in  Africa  were  laboring.  They  had  stated  that 
they  found  those  grievances  not  only  in  them- 
selves a  serious  cause  for  interposition,  but  a 
source  of  danger  to  the  whole  of  South  Africa. 

"They  (the  government)  said  that  their  pre- 
dominance, which  both  sides  of  the  House  had 
constantly  asserted,  was  menaced  by  the  action 
of  the  Transvaal  government  in  refusing  the  re- 
dress of  grievances,  and  in  refusing  any  consid- 
eration of  the  requests  hitherto  put  in  the  most 
moderate  language  of  the  suzerain  power.  They 
said  that  that  was  a  state  of  things  which  could 
not  be  long  tolerated.  They  had  said :  'We  have 
put  our  hands  to  the  plow  and  we  will  not  turn 
back,'  and  with  that  statement  I  propose  to  rest 
content." 

Language  could  not  be  plainer.  It  was  the 
British  government's  demand  that  the  South  Af- 
rican Republic  must  accept  British  control  of  her 
internal  affairs — of  affairs  so  purely  domestic  as 
the  franchise  and  the  representation  of  her  citi- 


248  THE    AFRICANDERS 

zens — or  fight.  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  in 
this  connection  that  Germany,  France,  the 
United  States  of  America  and  other  powerful  na- 
tions whose  subjects  were  mingled  with  the  Eng- 
lish in  that  vast  foreign  population  in  the  Trans- 
vaal, heard  of  no  grievances  inflicted  on  their 
subjects  by  the  South  African  Republic  sufficient 
to  call  forth  even  a  friendly  diplomatic  repre- 
sentation and  request  for  redress. 

On  the  morning  of  August  the  8th,  the  day 
after  Mr.  Chamberlain's  warlike  speech,  the  Lon- 
don papers  announced  that  the  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  regiments,  then  at  the  Cape,  had 
been  ordered  to  Natal ;  that  the  Fifteenth  Hus- 
sars were  to  embark  on  the  23d  of  August,  and 
that  troops  were  to  be  massed  along  the  Trans- 
vaal frontier.  On  the  nth  of  August  it  was  an- 
nounced that  12,000  British  troops  were  to  be 
dispatched  from  India  to  South  Africa,  and  on 
the  same  day  a  large  consignment  of  war  stores, 
including  medical  requisites,  was  given  out  from 
the  royal  arsenal,  Woolwich,  for  shipment  to 
Natal,  and  the  sum  of  $2,000,000  in  gold  was  sent 
to  South  Africa  for  the  War  Office  account. 
British  troops  began  to  arrive  in  South  Africa 
from  India  and  from  England  in  the  first  week  of 
October.    By  the  loth  some  15,000  had  landed. 


SECOND  war:    its  causes  249 

These  were  hurried  to  the  frontiers  of  the  Orange 
Free  State — both  west  and  east — most  of  them 
being  concentrated  along  the  northern  boundary 
of  Natal,  convenient  to  the  southern  frontier  of 
the  Transvaal. 

The  government  of  the  South  African  Repub- 
lic made  no  mistake  as  to  the  meaning  of  Cham- 
berlain's belligerent.speech  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. On  the  8th  of  August  orders  were  given 
for  the  purchase  of  1,000  trek  oxen,  to  be  used  in 
the  operations  of  the  commissary  department. 
On  the  nth  the  German  steamer  Reichstag  ar- 
rived at  Lorenzo  Marquez  with  401  cases  of  am- 
munition. On  the  I2th  it  was  decided  to  pro- 
ceed at  once  with  the  construction  of  fortified 
camps  at  Laing's  Nek  and  Majuba  Hill,  and  or- 
ders were  issued  for  the  preparation  of  armored 
trains.  The  mobilization  of  artillery  was  begun 
on  the  13th,  and  the  next  day  that  force  went 
into  camps  of  instruction  to  learn  the  handling 
of  guns  of  the  latest  pattern.  On  the  14th  of  Au- 
gust the  Field  Cornets  were  ordered  to  distribute 
Mauser  rifles  to  the  burghers,  and  the  govern- 
ment began  the  purchase  of  mules,  provisions 
and  general  war  supplies.  Large  quantities  of 
arms  and  ammunition  were  dispatched  on  the 
15th  of  August  to  Oudtshoorn,  Aliwal  Bethany, 


250  THE   AFRICANDERS 

and  other  points  in  Cape  Colony  and  the  Orange 
Free  State  for  the  use  of  any  Africanders  who 
should  rise  against  Great  Britain  when  hostilities 
began.  On  the  19th  of  August  another  German 
steamer,  the  Koenig,  arrived  in  Delagoa  Bay  with 
2,000  cases  of  cartridges  for  the  Transvaal  gov- 
ernment. The  same  day  fifty  cases  of  ammuni- 
tion each  were  dispatched  to  Kimberley,  Jagers- 
fontein  and  Aliwal  North  for  the  arming  of  sym- 
pathizers in  those  districts  of  Cape  Colony.  On 
the  same  day  300  Transvaal  artillerists,  with 
guns,  ammunition  and  camp  equipage,  left  Jo- 
hannesburg for  Komati  Pass,  in  the  Libombo 
Mountains. 

And  so  it  went  on  during  the  "friendly  diplo- 
matic correspondence,"  which  terminated  on  the 
25th  of  September — awaiting  the  "later  dispatch" 
from  the  British  cabinet,  which  never  came ;  both 
sides  arming  and  maneuvering  for  strategic  ad- 
vantages in  preparation  for  the  struggle  that  was 
seen  to  be  inevitable. 

Perceiving  that  all  the  days  spent  in  waiting 
for  that  "later  dispatch"  were  being  used  by 
Great  Britain  in  massing  her  gigantic  powers  of 
-war  in  South  Africa  and  along  the  Transvaal 
frontier,  and  believing  that  no  such  dispatch 
would  now  come  until  the  points  of  war  were  all 


SECOND  war:    its  causes  251 

secured  by  his  great  antagonist,  President  Kru- 
ger  at  last  astonished  the  world — and,  most  of  all, 
Great  Britain — by  issuing  an  ultimatum  suffi- 
ciently bold  and  defiant  to  have  come  from  any 
of  the  first-rate  powers  of  the  earth. 

The  document  was  dated  5  o'clock,  p.  m.,  on 
Monday,  October  the  9th,  and  read  as  follows : 

"Her  Majesty's  unlawful  intervention  in  the 
internal  afifairs  of  this  republic,  in  conflict  with 
the  London  convention  of  1884,  and  by  the  ex- 
traordinary strengthening  of  her  troops  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  borders  of  this  republic,  has 
caused  an  intolerable  condition  of  things  to  arise, 
to  which  this  government  feels  itself  obliged,  in 
the  interest  not  only  of  this  republic,  but  also  of 
all  South  Africa,  to  make  an  end  as  soon  as 
possible. 

"This  government  feels  itself  called  upon  and 
obliged  to  press  earnestly  and  with  emphasis  for 
an  immediate  termination  of  this  state  of  things, 
and  to  request  Her  Majesty's  government  to  give 
assurances  upon  the  following  four  demands : 

"First — That  all  points  of  mutual  difference 
be  regulated  by  friendly  recourse  to  arbitration 
or  by  whatever  amicable  way  may  be  agreed 
upon  by  this  government  and  Her  Majesty's 
government. 


252  THE    AFRICANDERS 

"Second — That  all  troops  on  the  borders  of 
this  republic  shall  be  instantly  withdrawn. 

"Third — That  all  re-enforcements  of  troops 
which  have  arrived  in  South  Africa  since  June  i, 
1899,  shall  be  removed  from  South  Africa  within 
a  reasonable  time,  to  be  agreed  upon  with  this 
government,  and  with  the  mutual  assurance  and 
guaranty  on  the  part  of  this  government  that  no 
attack  upon  or  hostilities  against  any  portion  of 
the  possessions  of  the  British  government  shall 
be  made  by  this  republic  during  the  further  ne- 
gotiations within  a  period  of  time  to  be  subse- 
quently agreed  upon  between  the  governments; 
and  this  government  will,  on  compliance  there- 
with, be  prepared  to  withdraw  the  burghers  of 
this  republic  from  the  borders. 

"Fourth — That  Her  Majesty's  troops  which 
are  now  on  the  high  seas  shall  not  be  landed  in 
any  part  of  South  Africa. 

"This  government  presses  for  an  immediate 
and  an  affirmative  answer  to  these  four  questions 
and  earnestly  requests  Her  Majesty's  govern- 
ment to  return  an  answer  before  or  upon 
Wednesday,  October  11,  1899,  ^^^  l^ter  than  5 
o'clock  p.  m. 

"It  desires  further  to  add  that  in  the  unex- 
pected event  of  an  answer  not  satisfactory  being 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  253 

received  by  it  within  the  interval,  it  will  with 
great  regret  be  compelled  to  regard  the  action  of 
Her  Majesty's  government  as  a  formal  declara- 
tion of  war  and  will  not  hold  itself  responsible  for 
the  consequences  thereof,  and  that,  in  the  event 
of  any  further  movement  of  troops  occurring 
within  the  above-mentioned  time  in  a  nearer  di- 
rection to  our  borders,  this  government  will  be 
compelled  to  regard  that  also  as  a  formal  declara- 
tion of  war." 

This  document  was  signed  by  F.  W.  Reitz, 
State  Secretary,  and  handed  by  him  to  Mr.  Con- 
yngham  Greene,  Her  Majesty's  agent  at  Pre- 
toria. On  Wednesday  afternoon,  October  the 
nth,  at  3  o'clock,  Mr.  Greene  delivered  the  reply 
of  his  government,  which  read  thus : 

"Her  Majesty's  government  declines  even  to 
consider  the  peremptory  demands  of  the  Trans- 
vaal government." 

Within  an  hour  the  telegraphic  wires  had 
flashed  through  all  the  South  African  Republic 
the  ominous  worc^  "Oorlog" — war ! 

Mr.  Conyngham  Greene  at  once  asked  for  his 
passport,  and  on  the  next  day,  October  the  12th, 
with  his  family,  he  was  sent,  attended  by  a  guard 
of  honor,  to  the  border  of  the  Orange  Free  State, 


254  THE    AFRICANDERS 

where  a  similar  guard  received  and  conducted 
him  to  British  territory  in  Cape  Colony. 

Thursday,  the  12th  of  October,  was  a  busy 
and  exciting  day  in  both  the  Transvaal  and  the 
Orange  Free  State — for  the  two  republics  stood 
as  one  in  the  struggle.  That  night — twenty-four 
hours  after  war  had  been  declared — 30,000  bur- 
ghers were  on  the  borders  ready  to  do  battle.  Of 
these  20,000  invaded  Natal  under  General  Jou- 
bert,  and  the  vanguard  under  General  Kock  oc- 
cupied Newcastle  on  the  13th  of  October.  The 
other  10,000,  under  General  Peit  Cronje,  crossed 
the  western  border  into  British  Bechuanaland 
and  marched  on  Mafeking. 

Thus,  and  for  the  causes  set  forth,  began  the 
Africanders'  Second  War  of  Independence.  It 
was  not  in  the  proposed  scope  of  this  book  to 
treat  of  its  fortunes.  The  prospect  is  that  it  will 
be  a  long  and  sanguinary  war.  The  story  of  it 
will  afford  abundant  and  interesting  matter  for  a 
later  volume. 

It  only  remains  to  show  that  in  all  the  matters 
in  dispute  between  the  government  of  the  Trans- 
vaal and  that  of  Great  Britain,  and  in  the  war 
which  resulted  therefrom,  the  two  Africander  re- 
publics acted  in  solidarity.  Early  in  November, 
1899,  the  President  of  the  Orange  Free  State 


SECOND  war:    its  causes  255 

announced  this  to  his  people  and  to  the  world  in 
the  following  proclamation : 

"BUEGHEES    OF    THE    OeANGE    FeEE    StATE  : 

The  time  which  we  had  so  much  desired  to  avoid 
— the  moment  when  we  as  a  nation  are  compelled 
with  arms  to  oppose  injustice  and  shameless  vio- 
lence— is  at  hand.  Our  sister  republic  to  the 
north  of  the  Vaal  river  is  about  to  be  attacked  by 
an  unscrupulous  enemy,  who  for  many  years  has 
prepared  herself  and  sought  pretexts  for  the  vio- 
lence of  which  he  is  now  guilty,  whose  purpose  is 
to  destroy  the  existence  of  the  Africander  race. 

"With  our  sister  republic  we  are  not  only 
bound  by  ties  of  blood,  of  sympathy  and  of  com- 
mon interests,  but  also  by  formal  treaty  which 
has  been  necessitated  by  circumstances.  This 
treaty  demands  of  us  that  we  assist  her  if  she 
should  be  unjustly  attacked,  which  we  unfortu- 
nately for  a  long  time  have  had  too  much  reason 
to  expect.  We  therefore  cannot  passively  look 
on  while  injustice  is  done  her,  and  while  also  our 
own  dearly  bought  freedom  is  endangered,  but 
are  called  as  men  to  resist,  trusting  the  Almighty, 
firmly  believing  that  He  will  never  permit  injus- 
tice and  unrighteousness  to  triumph. 

"Now  that  we  thus  resist  a  powerful  enemy, 
with  whom  it  has  always  been  our  highest  de- 


256  THE   AFRICANDERS 

sire  to  live  in  friendship,  notwithstanding  injus- 
tice and  wrong  done  by  him  to  us  in  the  past,  we 
solemnly  declare  in  the  presence  of  the  Almighty 
God  that  we  are  compelled  thereto  by  the  injus- 
tice done  to  our  kinsmen  and  by  the  conscious- 
ness that  the  end  of  their  independence  will  make 
our  existence  as  an  independent  state  of  no  sig- 
nificance, and  that  their  fate,  should  they  be 
obliged  to  bend  under  an  overwhelming  power, 
will  also  soon  after  be  our  own  fate. 

"Solemn  treaties  have  not  protected  our  sis- 
ter republic  against  annexation,  against  conspir- 
acy, against  the  claim  of  an  abolished  suzerainty, 
against  continuous  oppression  and  interference, 
and  now  against  a  renewed  attack  which  aims 
only  at  her  downfall. 

"Our  own  unfortunate  experiences  in  the  past 
have  also  made  it  sulificiently  clear  to  us  that  we 
cannot  rely  on  the  most  solemn  promises  and 
agreements  of  Great  Britain,  when  she  has  at  her 
helm  a  government  prepared  to  trample  on 
treaties,  to  look  for  feigned  pretexts  for  every 
violation  of  good  faith  by  her  committed.  This 
is  proved  among  other  things  by  the  unjust  and 
unlawful  British  intervention,  after  we  had  over- 
come an  armed  and  barbarous  black  tribe  on  our 
eastern  frontier,  as  also  by  the  forcible  appropria- 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  257 

tion  of  the  dominion  over  part  of  our  territory 
where  the  discovery  of  diamonds  had  caused  the 
desire  for  this  appropriation,  although  contrary 
to  existing  treaties.  The  desire  and  intention  to 
trample  on  our  rights  as  an  independent  and 
sovereign  nation,  notwithstanding  a  solemn  con- 
vention existing  between  this  state  and  Great 
Britain,  have  also  been  more  than  once  and  are 
now  again  shown  by  the  present  government,  by 
giving  expressions  in  public  documents  to  an  un- 
foun(;led  claim  of  paramountcy  over  the  whole  of 
South  Africa,  and  therefore  also  over  this  state. 

"With  regard  to  the  South  African  Republic, 
Great  Britain  has  moreover  refused  until  the 
present  to  allow  her  to  regain  her  original  posi- 
tion in  respect  to  foreign  afTairs,  a  position  which 
she  had  lost  in  no  sense  by  her  own  faults.  The 
original  intention  of  the  conventions  to  which 
the  republic  had  consented  under  pressure  and 
circumstances  has  been  perverted  and  contin- 
ually been  used  by  the  present  British  admin- 
istration as  a  means  for  the  practice  of  tyranny 
and  of  injustice,  and,  among  other  things,  for  the 
support  of  a  revolutionary  propaganda  within  the 
republic  in  favor  of  Great  Britain. 

"And  while  no  redress  has  been  offered,  as 

justice  demands,  for  injustice  done  to  the  South 
17 


258  THE    AFRICANDERS 

African  Republic  on  the  part  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment ;  and  while  no  gratitude  is  exhibited  for 
the  magnanimity  shown  at  the  request  of  the 
British  government  to  British  subjects  who  had 
forfeited  under  the  laws  of  the  republic  their  lives 
and  property,  yet  no  feeling  of  shame  has  pre- 
vented the  British  government,  now  that  the  gold 
mines  of  immense  value  have  been  discovered  in 
the  country,  to  make  claims  of  the  republic,  the 
consequence  of  which,  if  allowed,  will  be  that 
those  who — or  whose  forefathers — have  saved 
the  country  from  barbarism  and  have  won  it  for 
civilization  with  their  blood  and  their  tears,  will 
lose  their  control  over  the  interests  of  the  coun- 
try to  which  they  are  justly  entitled  according  to 
divine  and  human  laws.  The  consequence  of 
these  claims  would  be,  moreover,  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  power  will  be  placed  in  the  hands  of 
those  who,  foreigners  by  birth,  enjoy  the  priv- 
ilege of  depriving  the  country  of  its  chief  treas- 
ure, while  they  have  never  shown  any  loyalty  to 
a  foreign  government.  Besides,  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  acceptance  of  these  claims'- 
would  be  that  the  independence  of  the  country  as 
a  self-governing,  independent  sovereign  republic 
would  be  irreparably  lost.  For  years  past  British 
troops  in  great  numbers  have  been  placed  on  the 


SECOND  war:     its  causes  259 

frontiers  of  our  sister  republic  in  order  to  compel 
her  by  fear  to  accede  to  the  demands  which  would 
be  pressed  upon  her,  and  in  order  to  encourage 
revolutionary  disturbances  and  the  cunning  plans 
of  those  whose  greed  for  gold  is  the  cause  of  their 
shameless  undertakings. 

"Those  plans  have  now  reached  their  climax 
in  the  open  violence  to  which  the  present  British 
government  now  resorts.  While  we  readily  ac- 
knowledge the  honorable  character  of  thousands 
of  Englishmen  who  loathe  such  deeds  of  robbery 
and  wrong,  we  cannot  but  abhor  the  shameless 
breaking  of  treaties,  the  feigned  pretexts  for  the 
transgression  of  law,  the  violation  of  interna- 
tional law  and  of  justice  and  the  numerous  right- 
rending  deeds  of  the  British  statesmen,  who  will 
now  force  a  war  upon  the  South  African  Repub- 
lic. On  their  heads  be  the  guilt  of  blood,  and 
may  a  just  Providence  reward  all  as  they  deserve. 

"Burghers  of  the  Orange  Free  State,  rise  as 
one  man  against  the  oppressor  and  the  violator 
of  right ! 

"In  the  strife  to  which  we  are  now  driven 
have  care  to  commit  no  deed  unworthy  of  a 
Christian  and  of  a  burgher  of  the  Orange  Free 
State.  Let  us  look  forward  with  confidence  to  a 
fortunate  end  of  this   conflict,  trusting  to   the 


26o  THE    AFRICANDERS 

Higher  Power  without  whose  help  human  weap- 
ons are  of  no  avail. 

"May  He  bless  our  arms.  Under  His  banner 
we  advance  to  battle  for  liberty  and  for  father- 
land. M.  T.  Steyn,  State  President." 


THEIR    COUNTRY  26 1 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  COUNTRY  OF  THE  AFRICANDERS. 

Some  knowledge  of  the  physical  structure  of 
South  Africa  is  necessary  to  an  understanding  of 
its  resources,  economic  conditions  and  the  long- 
standing political  problems  which,  to  all  appear- 
ance, are  now  nearing  a  final  solution. 

Nature  has  divided  that  part  of  Africa  lying 
south  of  the  Zambesi  River  into  three  distinct 
and  well-defined  regions.  A  strip  of  lowland 
skirts  the  coast  of  the  Indian  Ocean  all  the  way 
from  Cape  Town  around  to  Natal,  Delagoa  Bay 
and  still  northeast  to  the  mouths  of  the  Zambesi. 
Between  Durban,  the  principal  port  of  Natal,  and 
Cape  Town  this  strip  is  very  narrow  in  places — 
the  hills  coming  down  almost  to  the  margin  of 
the  sea.  Beyond  Durban,  to  the  northeast,  the 
low  plain  grows  wider.  This  belt  of  lowland  is 
more  or  less  swampy,  and  from  Durban  north- 
ward is  exceedingly  malarious  and  unhealthful. 
This  feature  is  a  prime  factor  in  the  physical 


262  THE    AFRICANDERS 

structure  of  the  country  and  has  had  much  to  do 
with  shaping  its  history. 

The  second  region  is  composed  of  the  ele- 
vated and  much  broken  surface  presented  by 
the  Drakensburg  or  Quathlamba  range  of  moun- 
tains, reaching  from  Cape  Town  to  the  Zambesi 
Valley — a  distance  of  sixteen  hundred  miles.  In 
traveling  inland,  after  leaving  the  level  belt,  at 
from  thirty  to  sixty  miles  from  the  sea  the  hills 
rise  higher  and  higher — from  three  thousand  to 
six  thousand  feet.  These  hills  are  only  the  spurs 
of  the  principal  range,  some  of  whose  peaks  rise 
to  an  elevation  of  eleven  thousand  feet. 

Beyond  the  Quathlamba  Mountains,  to  the 
west  and  north,  is  the  third  natural  division  of 
South  Africa — a  vast  tableland  or  plateau,  vary- 
ing from  three  thousand  to  five  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea  level.  This  region  occupies  about 
seven-eighths  of  the  area  of  South  Africa. 

To  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  country  the  phys- 
ical scheme  is  exceedingly  simple — a  great  pla- 
teau filling  the  interior,  a  belt  of  lowland  border- 
ing the  Indian  Ocean  and  one  principal  moun- 
tain range  between  the  two. 

Geologically  considered,  the  oldest  formation 
is  found  in  the  northern  part  of  the*tableland  and 
toward  the  northeastern  end  of  the  Quathlamba 


•  THEIE    COUNTRY  263 

Mountains.  The  principal  formations  in  this  re- 
gion are  granite  and  gneiss,  beHeved  to  be  of 
great  antiquity — probably  of  the  same  age  as  the 
Laurentian  formations  in  America.  The  rocks 
of  the  Karoo  district  are  not  so  ancient.  There 
are  no  traces  anywhere  in  South  Africa  of  late 
volcanic  action,  nor  has  any  active  volcano  been 
discovered  there ;  but  eruptive  rocks  of  ancient 
date — porphyries  and  greenstones — are  found 
overlying  the  sedimentary  deposits  in  the  Karoo 
district  and  in  the  mountain  systems  of  Basuto- 
land  and  the  Orange  Free  State. 

The  African  coast  is  notably  poor  in  harbors. 
There  is  no  haven  between  Cape  Town  and  Dur- 
ban. From  Durban  to  the  Zambesi  there  are  but 
two  good  ports — that  of  Delagoa  Bay  and  Beira. 
With  the  exception  of  Saldanha  Bay,  twenty 
miles  north  of  Cape  Town,  the  western  coast,  for 
a  thousand  miles,  has  no  harbor. 

The  temperature  in  Southern  Africa  is  much 
lower  than  the  latitude  would  lead  one  to  expect. 
This  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
vast  preponderance  of  water  in  the  southern 
hemisphere,  which  has  the  effect  of  giving  a 
cooler  temperature  than  prevails  in  a  correspond- 
ing northern  latitude.  The  difference  in  both 
heat  and  cold  represents  over  two  degrees  of  dif- 


264  THE    AFRICANDERS 

ference  in  latitude.  Thus,  Cape  Town,  34°  S., 
has  a  lower  temperature  in  both  summer  and 
winter  than  Gibraltar  and  Aleppo,  in  36°  N. 
Nevertheless,  the  thermometer  registers  high  in 
some  parts  of  South  Africa.  Even  at  Durban, 
in  latitude  30°  S.,  the  heat  is  often  severe,  and  the 
northern  part  of  the  Transvaal  and  the  British 
territories  to  the  north  of  it  lie  within  the  Tropic 
of  Capricorn.  The  mean  temperature  in  South 
Africa  proper  is  70°  Fahrenheit  in  January  and 
80°  in  July. 

Over  most  of  the  country  the  climate  is  ex- 
ceptionally dry.  In  the  region  of  Cape  Colony 
there  are  well-defined  summer  and  winter ;  but 
in  the  rest  of  South  Africa  for  about  two-thirds 
of  the  year  there  is  only  a  dry  season,  when  the 
weather  is  cooler,  and  a  wet  season  of  four  or 
five  months,  when  the  sun  is  the  highest  and  the 
heat  is  most  intense.  The  rainy  season  is  not  so 
continuous,  nor  is  there  so  great  a  precipitation, 
as  in  some  other  hot  countries.  In  the  parts 
where  the  rainfall  is  heaviest,  averaging  over 
thirty  inches  in  the  year,  the  moisture  soon  dis- 
appears by  evaporation  and  absorption,  and  the 
surface  remains  parched  till  the  next  wet  season. 
As  a  consequence  of  this  the  air  is  generally  dry, 
clear  and  stimulating. 


THEIE    COUXTRY  265 

It  is  interesting  to  note  tiie  effect  upon  cli- 
mate of  the  physical  structure  described  above. 
The  prevailing  and  rain-bringing  winds  are  from 
the  east  and  the  southeast.  They  bring  suffi- 
cient moisture  to  the  low  plain  along  the  sea 
coast,  and  passing  inland  the  rain-bearing  clouds 
water  the  foothills  of  the  Quathlamba  Mountains 
and  precipitate  snow  on  the  loftier  peaks  beyond 
them.  A  portion  of  the  moisture  is  carried  still 
farther  to  the  west  and  falls  in  showers  on  the 
eastern  part  of  the  plateau — the  Transvaal,  the 
Orange  Free  State,  the  eastern  border  of  Bech- 
uanaland  and  the  region  northward  toward  the 
Zambesi.  Sections  farther  to  the  north  and  west 
receive  but  little  of  the  annual  rainfall,  ranging 
from  five  to  ten  inches  in  the  year.  That  little  is 
soon  dissipated,  the  surface  becomes  dry  and 
hard,  and  such  vegetation  as  springs  up  under 
the  brief  showers  soon  dies.  Much  of  this  region 
is  a  desert,  and  so  must  remain  until  more  and 
more  continuous  moisture  is  supplied,  either  by 
artificial  irrigation  or  by  some  favorable  change 
in  natural  conditions. 

From  these  permanent  physical  features — the 
lowlands  along  the  coast,  the  elevated  plateau  in 
the  interior,  the  mountain  range  running  be- 
tween them,  a  burning  sun  and  a  dry  atmosphere 


266  THE    AFRICANDERS 

— have  developed  many  of  the  other  natural 
phenomena  of  South  Africa. 

The  rivers  of  that  country — laid  down  in 
great  numbers  on  the  maps — are  not  rivers  dur- 
ing much  of  the  year.  In  the  dry  season  they  are 
either  without  water  altogether  or  consist  of  a 
succession  of  little  pools  scarcely  sufficient  to 
supply  the  cattle  on  their  banks  with  drink.  And 
when  they  are  rivers  they  are,  most  of  the  time, 
such  as  can  neither  be  forded  nor  navigated ;  the 
violent  rains — continuing  for  hours  and  some- 
times for  many  days — have  converted  them  into 
roaring  torrents. 

Now,  if  that  country  could  have  been  entered 
by  waterways,  as  were  North  and  South  Amer- 
ica, it  would  not  have  remained  an  unknown 
land  so  long.  But  there  was  no  other  means  of 
penetrating  it  than  the  lumbering  ox-wagon, 
making  at  best  a  dozen  miles  a  day,  with  frequent 
long  halts  in  the  neighborhood  of  good  grass  in 
order  to  rest  and  recuperate  the  cattle.  It  is 
this  lack  of  navigable  rivers  that  now  compels  the 
people  to  depend  exclusively  on  railways  for  in- 
ternal transportation  and  travel.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  tidal  streams  there  is  no  internal  water 
communication  of  any  value. 

Another  peculiarity  of  the  east  coast  rivers 


THEIR    COUNTBY  26/ 

arises  out  of  the  nearness  of  the  Quathlamba 
Mountains  to  the  sea.  Such  rivers  as  take  their 
rise  in  the  mountains  have  very  short  courses, 
and  the  few  that  come  from  beyond,  finding 
channels  through  the  mountain  passes,  are  so 
obstructed  by  rapids  and  cataracts  at  the  point 
of  descent  from  the  higher  levels  that  no  boat 
can  ascend  them. 

South  Africa  presents  to  the  foreigner  from 
cooler  climates  no  serious  danger  as  to  health. 
The  sun-heat  would  be  trying  were  it  not  for  the 
dryness  of  the  atmosphere  and  the  invariable 
coolness  of  the  nights,  which  have  the  effect  of  a 
refreshing  tonic.  With  due  care  in  providing 
sufficient  wraps  for  the  occasional  cold  day  in 
the  dry  season,  and  the  means  of  comfortable 
sleep  during  the  cool  nights,  there  is  nothing  to 
fear. 

The  much-dreaded  malarial  fever  has  its  hab- 
itat in  the  lowlands  of  both  the  east  and  the  west 
coast.  Persons  who  are  not  immune  to  it  can 
choose  their  place  of  residence  on  the  higher 
lands,  or  take  refuge  in  quinine. 

The  dryness  and  purity  of  the  air  in  many 
parts  of  South  Africa — notably  Ceres,  Kimber- 
ley,  Beauport  West  and  other  places  in  the  in- 
terior plateau — make  it  peculiarly  suitable  for 


268  THE    AFRICANDERS 

persons  suffering  from  any  form  of  chest  disease 
— always  excepting  tuberculosis,  for  which  the 
sure  remedy  has  not  yet  been  discovered.  But 
even  the  victims  of  that  malady  find  atmospheric 
and  other  conditions  friendly  to  a  prolongation 
of  life  in  the  salubrious  air  and  sunshine  of  the 
South  African  tablelands. 

On  the  whole,  there  can  be  no  question  as  to 
the  general  good  effect  upon  health  of  the  South 
African  climate.  Europeans  and  Americans  liv- 
ing therein  pursue  their  athletic  sports  with  all 
the  zest  experienced  in  their  native  climates,  and 
the  descendants  of  the  original  Dutch  and  Hu- 
guenot settlers — now  in  the  sixth  and  seventh 
generations — have  lost  nothing  of  the  stature 
nor  of  the  physical  energy  that  characterized 
their  forefathers. 

South  Africa  used  to  be  the  habitat  of  an  un- 
usually rich  fauna.  The  lion,  leopard,  elephant, 
giraffe,  rhinoceros,  hippopotamus,  antelope  in 
thirty-one  species,  zebra,  quagga,  buffalo  and 
various  other  wild  creatures — some  of  them  sav- 
age, and  all  of  them  beautiful  after  their  kind — 
abounded.  But  of  late  years  all  this  has  been 
changed.  Since  firearms  have  been  greatly  im- 
proved and  cheapened  and  the  country  has  been 
opened  to  the  Nimrods  of  the  world  and  the 


THEIR    COUNTRY  269 

swarming  natives  have  procured  guns  and 
learned  to  use  them,  the  wild  animals  have  been 
thinned  out.  There  are  now  but  two  regions  in 
South  Africa  where  big  game  can  be  killed  in  any 
great  numbers — the  Portuguese  territory  from 
the  Zambesi  to  Delagoa  Bay,  and  the  adjoining 
eastern  frontier  of  the  Transvaal. 

Snakes  of  various  kinds  and  sizes,  from  the 
poisonous  black  momba  to  the  python  that  grows 
to  over  twenty  feet  in  length,  used  to  infest  many 
parts  of  the  country,  but  they  have  almost  disap- 
peared from  the  temperate  regions  inhabited  by 
the  whites. 

The  farmers'  worst  enemies  are  not  now  the 
great  beasts  and  reptiles  of  former  years,  but  the 
baboons,  which  gather  in  the  more  rocky  dis- 
tricts and  kill  the  lambs,  and  two  species  of  in- 
sects— the  white  ants  and  the  locusts — which 
sometimes  ravage  the  eastern  coast. 

Beyond  that  of  most  countries  in  the  world 
of  equal  extent  the  flora  of  South  Africa  is  rich 
in  both  genera  and  species.  The  neighborhood  of 
Cape  Town  and  the  warm,  sub-tropical  regions 
of  eastern  Cape  Colony  and  Natal  are  specially 
affluent  in  beautiful  flowers.  In  the  Karoo  dis- 
trict, and  northeastward  over  the  plateau  into 
Bechuanaland  and  the  Transvaal,  vegetation  pre- 


2/0  THE    AFRICANDERS 

sents  but  little  variety  of  aspect,  owing  in  part  to 
the  general  sameness  of  geological  formations 
and  in  part  to  the  prevailing  dryness  of  the  sur- 
face. 

In  general,  South  Africa  is  comparatively 
bare  of  forests — a  fact  for  which  denudation  by 
man  cannot  account,  for  it  is  yet  a  country  new 
to  civilization.  Some  primitive  forests  are  to  be 
found  on  the  south  coast  of  Cape  Colony  and  in 
Natal.  These  have  been  put  under  the  care  of  a 
Forest  Department  of  the  government.  In  the 
great  Knysna  forest  wild  elephants  still  roam 
at  large.  The  trees,  however,  even  in  the  pre- 
served forests,  are  small,  few  of  them  being  more 
than  fifty  or  sixty  feet  in  height.  The  yellow- 
wood  grows  the  tallest,  but  the  less  lofty  sneeze- 
wood  is  the  most  useful  to  man.  Up  the  hillsides 
north  of  Graham's  Town  and  King  William's 
Town  are  immense  tracts  of  scrub  from  four  to 
eight  feet  high,  with  occasional  patches  of  prickly 
pear  —  a  formidable  invader  from  America, 
through  which  both  men  and  cattle  make  their 
passage  at  the  cost  of  much  effort  and  many  ir- 
ritating wounds  from  the  sharp  spines.  A  large 
part  of  this  region,  being  suitable  for  little  else, 
has  been  utilized  for  ostrich  farming. 

In  the  Karoo  district  and  northward  through 


THEIR    COUNTEY  2/1 

Cape  Colony,  western  Bechuanaland  and  the 
German  possessions  in  Namaqualand  and  Da- 
maraland — a  desert  region — there  are  few  trees 
except  small  and  thorny  mimosas.  Farther  east, 
where  there  is  a  greater  rainfall,  the  trees  are 
more  numerous  and  less  thorny.  The  plain 
around  Kimberley,  once  well  wooded,  has  been 
stripped  of  its  trees  to  furnish  props  for  the  dia- 
mond mines  and  fuel. 

The  lack  of  forests  is  one  of  the  principal 
drawbacks  to  the  development  of  South  Africa. 
Timber  is  everywhere  costly ;  the  rainfall  is  less 
than  it  would  be  if  the  country  were  well  wood- 
ed ;  and  when  rains  do  come  the  moisture  is 
more  rapidly  dissipated  by  absorption,  evapora- 
tion and  sudden  freshets  because  of  the  absence 
of  shade.  Of  late  energetic  measures  have  been 
taken  to  supply  nature's  lack  by  artificial  for- 
estry. On  the  great  veldt  plateau  in  the  vicinity 
of  Kimberley  and  of  Pretoria  and  in  other  local- 
ities the  people  have  planted  the  Australian 
gum  tree,  the  eucalyptus  and  several  varieties  of 
European  trees,  including  the  oak,  which,  be- 
sides being  useful,  is  very  beautiful.  If  the  prac- 
tice be  continued  the  country  will  reap  an  incal- 
culable benefit,  not  only  in  appearance,  but  also 
in  climatic  conditions. 


272  THE   AFRICANDERS 

The  largest  political  division  of  South  Africa 
is  Cape  Colony.  The  area  is  about  292,000 
square  miles  and  the  population,  white  and  na- 
tive, is  2,011,305.  The  whites  number  about  400,- 
000.  But  little  of  it  is  suitable  for  agriculture, 
and  considerable  portions  of  it  are  too  arid  for 
stock  raising.  Including  the  natives  the  popu- 
lation is  only  about  seven  to  the  square  mile. 
On  the  lowlands  skirting  the  sea  on  the  south 
and  west  are  some  fruitful  regions  that  give  a 
profitable  yield  of  grapes  and  corn.  On  the  table- 
land of  the  interior  there  is  a  rainfall  of  only  from 
five  to  fifteen  inches  in  the  year.  As  a  conse- 
quence the  surface  is  dry  and  unfriendly  to  veg- 
etable life.  In  an  area  of  three  hundred  miles  by 
one  hundred  and  fifty  there  is  not  a  stream  hav- 
ing a  current  throughout  the  year,  nor  is  there 
any  moisture  at  all  in  the  dry  season  except 
some  shallow  pools  which  are  soon  dried  up  by 
evaporation.  Nevertheless,  in  this  desert,'  bare 
of  trees  and  of  herbage,  there  is  abundance  of 
prickly  shrubs,  which  are  sufficiently  succulent 
when  they  sprout  under  the  summer  rains  to  af- 
ford good  browsing  for  goats  and  sheep.  In  the 
northwestern  part  of  the  interior  and  northward 
to  Kimberley  and  Mafeking,  the  country  is  bet- 
ter watered  than  the  more  westerly  regions,  and 


THEIR    COUNTRY  273 

grazing  animals  find  a  generous  growth  of  grass 
as  well  as  nutritious  shrubs.  In  the  southeastern 
part  the  rainfall  is  still  heavier.  The  foothills  of 
the  Ouathlamba  Range  toward  the  sea  are  cov- 
ered in  places  with  forests,  the  grass  is  more 
abundant  and  much  of  the  land  can  be  tilled  to 
profit  without  artificial  irrigation.  In  1899  there 
were  about  3,000  miles  of  railway  and  nearly 
7,060  miles  of  telegraph  open  in  the  colony.  The 
number  of  vessels  entering  the  ports  of  Cape 
Colony  in  1897  was  1,093,  with  a  total  tonnage  of 
2,694,370  tons ;  in  addition  to  this  there  were 
1,278  vessels  engaged  in  the  coastwise  trade,  v/ith 
a  tonnage  of  3,725,831  tons.  The  foreign  com- 
merce of  Cape  Colony  is  large,  including,  as  it 
does,  the  bulk  of  the  import  and  export  trade  of 
all  South  Africa.  The  total  importation  of  mer- 
chandise for  1897  was  $80,127,495,  and  the  ex- 
ports, including  a  large  proportion  of  the  gold 
and  diamond  products  of  Kimberley  and  the 
Transvaal,  amounted,  in  1898,  to  $123,213,458. 

Natal,  beyond  any  other  part  of  South  Africa, 
is  favored  by  natural  advantages.  It  lies  on  the 
seaward  slope  of  the  Ouathlamba  Mountains, 
and  its  scenery  is  charmingly  diversified  by 
some  of  the  lesser  peaks  and  the  foothills  of  that 
range.     It  is  well  watered  bv  perennial  streams 

18 


274  THE    AFRICANDERS 

fed  by  the  snows  and  springs  of  the  mountains. 
While  the  higher  altitudes  to  the  west  are  bare, 
there  is  abundance  of  grass  lower  down  and 
toward  the  coast  there  is  plenty  of  wood.  The 
climate  in  general  is  much  warmer  than  that  of 
Cape  Colony ;  in  the  low  strip  bordering  the  sea 
it  is  almost  tropical.  This  high  temperature  is 
not  caused  so  much  by  latitude  as  by  the  current 
in  the  Mozambique  Channel,  which  brings  from 
the  tropical  regions  of  the  Indian  Ocean  a  vast 
stream  of  warm  water,  which  acts  on  the  climate 
of  Natal  as  does  the  Gulf  Stream  on  that  of 
Georgia  and  the  Carolinas.  Nearly  the  whole  of 
Natal  may  be  counted  temperate;  the  soil  is 
rich,  the  scenery  is  beautiful,  and,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  certain  malarious  districts  at  the  north, 
the  climate  is  healthful.  Foreigners  from  Eu- 
rope and  America  may  reasonably  hope  to  enjoy 
long  life  and  prosperity  in  it.  The  principal  crop 
for  export  is  sugar,  but  cereals  of  all  kinds,  cof- 
fee, indigo,  arrowroot,  ginger,  tobacco,  rice,  pep- 
per, cotton  and  tea  are  grown  to  profit.  The 
coal  fields  of  the  colony  are  large,  the  output  in 
1897  being  244,000  tons.  There  are  487  miles  of 
railway,  built  and  operated  by  the  government. 
The  imports  in  1897  amounted  to  nearly  $30,- 
000,000.     Pop.  828,500;  whites,  61,000. 


THEIR    COUNTRY  275 

The  Orange  Free  State,  in  its  entire  area  of 
48,000  square  miles,  is  on  the  great  interior  pla- 
teau at  an  altitude  of  from  4,000  to  5,000  feet 
above  the  sea  level.  The  surface  is  mostly  level, 
but  there  are  occasional  hills — some  of  them  ris- 
ing to  a  height  of  6,000  feet.  The  land  is,  for 
the  most  part,  bare  of  trees,  but  afifords  good 
grazing  for  two-thirds  of  the  year.  The  air  is  re- 
markably pure  and  bracing.  There  are  no  bliz- 
zards to  encounter.  There  are,  however,  occa- 
sional violent  thunderstorms,  which  precipitate 
enormous  hailstones — large  enough  to  kill  the 
smaller  animals,  and  even  men.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  generally  parched  appearance  of  the 
country,  the  larger  streams  do  not  dry  up  in 
winter.  The  southeastern  part  of  the  Free  State, 
particularly  the  valley  of  the  Caledon  River,  is 
one  of  the  best  corn-growing  regions  in  Africa. 
In  the  main,  however,  with  the  exception  of  the 
river  valleys,  the  land  is  more  suitable  for  pas- 
ture than  for  tillage.  The  grazing  farms  are 
large  and  require  the  services  of  but  few  men ; 
as  a  consequence  the  population  increases  slow- 
ly. The  Free  State,  corresponding  in  size  to  the 
State  of  New  York,  has  only  about  80,000  white 
inhabitants  and  130,000  natives.  The  chief  in- 
dustry is  agriculture  and  stock-raising.    A  rail- 


276  THE    AFRICANDERS 

way,  constructed  by  the  Cape  Colony  govern- 
ment, connects  Bloemfontein,  the  capital  of  the 
Orange  Free  State,  with  the  ports  of  Cape  Col- 
ony and  Natal,  and  with  Pretoria,  the  capital  of 
the  South  African  Republic. 

The  South  African  Republic,  commonly 
called  the  Transvaal,  is  119,139  square  miles  in 
area.  The  white  population,  numbering  345,397, 
is  largely  concentrated  in  the  Witwatersrand 
mining  district.  The  native  inhabitants  number 
748,759.  All  the  Transvaal  territory  belongs  to 
the  interior  plateau,  with  the  exception  of  a  strip 
of  lower  land  on  the  eastern  and  northern  bor- 
ders. This  lower  section  is  malarious.  It  is 
thought,  however,  that  drainage  and  cultivation 
will  correct  this,  as  they  have  done  in  other  fever 
districts.  Like  the  Free  State,  the  Transvaal  is 
principally  a  grazing  country.  The  few  trees  that 
exist  in  the  more  sheltered  parts  are  of  little 
value,  except  those  in  the  lower  valleys.  The 
winters  are  severely  cold,  and  the  burning  sun  of 
summer  soon  dries  up  the  moisture  and  bakes 
the  soil,  causing  the  grass  to  be  stunted  and  yel- 
low during  most  of  the  year.  Until  about  six- 
teen years  ago  there  was  little  in  the  surface  ap- 
pearance and  known  resources  of  the  Transvaal 
to  attract  settlers,  and  nothing  to  make  it  a  de- 


THEIE    COUNTRY  2/7 

sirable  possession  to  any  other  people  than  its 
Africander  inhabitants.  In  1884  discoveries  of 
gold  were  made,  the  first  of  which  that  excited 
the  world  being  some  rich  auriferous  veins  on  the 
Sterkfontein  farm.  In  a  little  time  it  became 
known  that  probably  the  richest  deposit  of  gold 
in  the  world  was  in  the  Witwatersrand  district 
of  the  Transvaal.  Later,  in  1897,  diamonds  were 
discovered  in  the  Transvaal,  the  first  stone  hav- 
ing been  picked  up  at  Reitfontein,  near  the  Vaal 
River,  in  August  of  that  year.  Since  then  the 
precious  crystals  have  been  found  in  the  Pre- 
toria district,  in  Roodeplaats  on  the  Pienaars 
River,  at  Kameelfontein  and  at  BuffelsdufT.  The 
output  of  gold  in  1898  was  $68,154,000,  and  of 
diamonds  $212,812.01.  The  total  output  of  gold 
since  it  was  first  discovered  amounts  to  over 
$300,000,000,  with  $3,500,000,000  "in  sight,"  as 
valued  by  experts.  The  commerce  of  the  South 
African  Republic,  while  necessarily  great  be- 
cause of  the  large  number  of  people  employed  by 
the  mining  industries,  cannot  be  as  accurately 
stated  as  that  of  states  whose  imports  are  all  re- 
ceived through  a  given  port  or  ports.  Foreign 
goods  reach  it  through  several  ports  in  Cape 
Colony,  Natal,  Portuguese  East  Africa,  and  in 
smaller  quantities  from  other  ports  on  the  coast. 


2/8  THE    AFRICANDERS 

The  total  imports  for  1897  are  estimated  at  $107,- 
575.000. 

Griqualand  West,  a  British  possession  bor- 
dering on  Cape  Colony  on  the  south  and  on  the 
Free  State  on  the  east,  owes  its  chief  importance 
to  the  Kimberley  diamond  mines,  near  the  west- 
ern boundary  of  the  Free  State  and  600  miles 
from  Cape  Town.  These  mines  were  opened  in 
]868  and  1869.  It  is  estimated  that  since  that 
time  $350,000,000  worth  of  diamonds  in  the 
rough — worth*  double  that  sum  after  cutting — 
have  been  taken  out.  This  enormous  produc- 
tion would  have  been  greatly  exceeded  had  not 
the  owners  of  the  various  mines  in  the  group 
formed  an  agreement  by  which  the  annual  out- 
put was  limited  to  a  small  excess  over  the  annual 
demand  in  the  world's  diamond  markets.  So 
plentiful  is  the  supply,  and  so  inexpensive,  com- 
paratively, is  the  cost  of  mining  that  other  dia- 
mond-producing works  have  almost  entirely 
withdrawn  from  the  industry  since  the  South  Af- 
rican mines  were  opened.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  ninety-eight  per  cent  of  the  diamonds  of 
commerce  are  now  supplied  by  these  mines. 

The  British  protectorate  of  Bechuanaland, 
lying  to  the  north  of  Cape  Colony  and  Griqua- 
land and  to  the  west  of  the  Transvaal,  has  an 


THEIR    COUNTRY  279 

area  of  about  213,000  square  miles,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  200,000 — mostly  natives.  A  railway 
and  telegraph  line  connect  it  with  Cape  Colony 
on  the  south  and  Rhodesia  on  the  north. 

Rhodesia  includes  the  territory  formerly 
known  as  British  South  Africa  and  a  large  part 
of  that  known  as  British  East  Africa.  The  area 
is  about  750,000  square  miles — equal  to  about 
one-fourth  of  the  area  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  excluding  Alaska.  No  exact  statement 
of  population  can  be  made ;  estimates  range  from 
1,000,000  to  2,000,000,  of  which  only  about  6,000 
are  whites.  The  entire  territory  is  under  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Brtish  South  African  Com- 
pany, organized  and  incorporated  in  1889,  sub- 
ject to  the  British  High  Commissioner  at  Cape 
Town.  Rhodesia  lies  chiefly  within  the  table- 
lands of  South  Africa  and  has  large  but  yet  un- 
developed resources,  including  grazing  and  agri- 
cultural lands  and  important  mining  districts. 
Owing  to  the  newness  of  the  country  to  civili- 
zation no  definite  statement  can  be  made  relative 
to  its  commerce.  In  all  probability  Rhodesia 
will  open  a  field  wherein  enterprise  along  the 
lines  favored  by  its  natural  resources  and  condi- 
tions will  be  richly  rewarded. 

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